Canton paper mill bell sounds for final time, signaling an end after 115 years
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CANTON - After over a century of service providing the town with thousands of jobs, the Canton paper mill sounded its final bell May 24, signaling the permanent closure of the iconic site.
“It's a sad day — they're gonna lose homes, they're losing their insurance. They're losing everything," Canton resident Keitha Oldham said of the mill workers.
Pactiv Evergreen, the packaging company that owns the Canton mill, announced the closure on March 6 with under 90 days of notice for Canton citizens. The residents of Canton are already mourning the shocking loss of the iconic building not only for the sake of nostalgia, but for the many livelihoods the mill created. Layoffs due to the mill’s closure number over 1,000. For many Canton citizens, this is a frightening prospect.
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Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers said after learning of the planned summer shutdown of the paper mill he contacted North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Rep. Chuck Edwards to ask for assistance. Cooper went on to write an open letter to the CEO of Pactiv Evergreen suggesting they reconsider the closure or search for a buyer for the mill, stating that their announcement was a clear violation of a 2015 contract between Pactiv Evergreen and the North Carolina Department of Commerce. According to Cooper, the contract provided Pactiv Evergreen with $12 million in grant money in exchange for retaining at least 800 full-time employees until Dec. 31, 2024.
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The final ring of the bell occurred at noon May 24, and many Canton residents came together on the lawn of Sorrells Street Park directly across from the mill to see it off. Emotions were high in residents of all ages but perhaps most of all in Canton’s senior citizens, many of whom had worked at the mill for their entire lives.
Oldham held back tears as she explained her own family’s relationship to the mill.
“This is history, this is their life. This is all they know. This is what Canton is," Oldham said. "My Papaw helped build this, and most of my family works in there, and did work there, and retired from there.”
Like so many in Canton, Oldham’s response to the mill’s closure went deeper than her own family connection, extending into worry over the entire population of the town.
“My heart goes out to them," she said. "I don't think it’s right, the way they done, and I hope something good will come out of all of this.”
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The community’s grief over the closure is proportional to the role the mill has played for 115 years — not only sustaining the town’s residents, but also playing a huge part in the original establishment of the town. Construction began on the mill in 1908, only 16 years into the town’s history. The town’s population is said to have grown from 230 to 1,393 between 1900 and 1910 due to the availability of jobs through the mill.
Curator of the Canton Area Historical Museum Caroline Ponton paused her photography of the sprawling mill to comment on this role.
“This is part of their roots,” Ponton said. “It’s part of their culture. It's a part of who they are. So it's a loss.”
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As a reflection of the depth of this loss, several separate pages have been published in the hope to provide valuable resources to those effected by the Canton shutdown. Cooper provided a page on his website including information on unemployment insurance and family resources. The city of Canton in partnership with several other organizations published its own website to provide the public with an array of resources including job training opportunities, health insurance, financial assistance and simple displays of appreciation for mill workers such as a planned June 16 cookout for Canton mill workers.
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Canton Chief of Police Scott Sluder and several of his officers joined the Sorrells Street Park gathering to show their solidarity to their community. Sluder said he understands how meaningful the mill is to his community and said he believes they will need time to heal from the loss of what many see as the heart of their town.
“There's gonna be feelings that are gonna go on for for a long time to come, and it's just like a loss of anything else," Sluder said. "We've got to cope with that. We've got to go through those phases of loss, and we've got to move forward.”
However, Sluder says he is remaining cautiously optimistic for the future.
“We are a strong community, and we're made up of good people," Sluder said. "And I believe that if we all come together, and we're towards this unified goal of coming out stronger, that we can do it. I believe if anybody can do it, this town and this county can do it.”
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Iconic Canton paper mill closed after 115 years
