In the early 1900s, the McCormick family had controlling interest of the (Chicago) Tribune Company which produced newspapers. In 1910, Robert McCormick started working in the family’s business and the following year was elected president of the Tribune Company.
The Tribune’s main competition was a newspaper out of Hearst which was able to obtain newsprint at lower cost. McCormick developed a plan to build his own newsprint mill in order to have better control over the price of his most important raw material. In winter of 1911, he chose a location in Thorold, Ontario which was at the time a cow pasture along the bank of the Welland Canal.
Two engineers were brought in from Chicago to design the plant. The mill building was completed by 1913, and the first production at the newly-formed Ontario Paper Company started on September 15, 1913. The second paper machine started a few weeks later. In 1914 the mill was able to meet 93% of the Tribune’s paper needs.
Closure
The Resolute Paper Mill was another statistic in the industries lost due to increasing operating costs and decreased sales. In 2016, the company announced a $15 million dollar loss. A decline in the demand for newsprint was the primary reason for the closure. In March of 2017 Resolute Forest Products was closed and approximately 120 workers were laid off.
Exploration
The building is quite large and took several hours to see it all. I didn’t take enough photos to do it justice. There’s a separate industrial building that we didn’t get to see.
The medical rooms are the most interesting. There are various medical equipment, a doctor’s examination table and several containers of old medicine.
In a span of less than 48 hours after first visiting this location, the doors had been chained back up. Several of my photos didn’t turn out clear – a casualty of the manual focus lens I was using 🙂
November of 2018 Photos
