The Fraser pulp mill in Berlin closed this past weekend after over one hundred years of operation.
The mill helped shape The City That Trees Built into a hard working, no frills town.
Now that the burners have cooled and the steady hum of the factory has quieted, Berlin’s future is uncertain.
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Kerry Grens visited Berlin during the mill’s last shift and filed this report.
This story was awarded an honorable mention in the 2006 Spot News category by the New Hampshire Associated Press Broadcasters Association.
[sounds car pulling into lot]
It’s the Saturday evening shift change between day and night workers.
[sounds car door slam]
A few men park their pick ups and trickle through the mill’s gate for their last night of work.
[sounds footsteps on gravel]
Couture: I was on the wet lot. They closed it. Now I’m slushing on the driers tonight, and that’s it.
Raymond Couture has worked in the pulp and paper mills in the North Country for over twenty years.
Couture: The best that I liked was the wood room. I like that smell of fresh cut wood. It’s nice. I’ve driven front end loaders for over 11 years, and it was good, I mean I didn’t mind that or shoveling sawdust or whatever the job called for. I didn’t mind it, of course it was pretty dusty. It’s something that I won’t see again I guess.
[car sounds]
Jim Wagner gives a quick tour through Berlin, pointing out features of the pulp mill.
Wagner: …This was all filled with logs right here. A lot of the suppliers came in, there’s their remnants, the last pieces of equipment taking their logs back.
He works in sales for Fraser, and had been mill manager in the nineties.
Wagner: …that’s where the bark is stripped off the wood, it’s chipped, and the chip goes across through those pipes way up in the air and blown across there…
He is the third generation in his family to work in the paper mill industry.
And he and his son Connor are mill enthusiasts.
Ten year old Connor describes how the lumberjacks did it in the old days.
Connor: They did a lot of cutting trees that were alive, a lot of clear cutting. The city was completely treeless. They threw them into the river, which caused water pollution and other environmental hazards and they were dividing the logs, driving them through waterfalls and stuff like that.
Third generation mill worker Jim Wagner.(Cheryl Senter, NHPR)
The Wagners are intent on preserving Berlin’s mill heritage.
Jim Wagner is also President of the Northern Forest Heritage Park, a replica of one of the city’s old logging camps.
And both Wagners are trustees of the Brown House—named after the long time mill owner W W Brown.
Connor: In 1952 he opened a mill in this area, I think. Oh yeah, the paper towel was invented here.
So was the precursor to Crisco.
The pulp from the mill went to produce sewer liners, and, of course, paper.
One of Jim Wagner’s fondest memories was making high grade papers for authors Stephen King and John Grisham.
The paper mill in Gorham is remaining open, for now.
But Berlin Mayor Bob Danderson predicts paper will become a thing of the past for Berlin.
But trees might still be in its future.
He’d like to see an energy producing wood burner come to the city.
Danderson: Then we’re still preserving some of our identity. Because that wood burner will be burning the trees or the chip trees, the biomass. Or if we find someone who is willing to look at ethanol or other energies, wood pellets, you’re talking about the trees again. You’re still preserving a lot of the traditional jobs.
Even if the jobs return to Berlin, the mill will be missed.
[sounds music hold under below]
Brad Wilson and Mike Dugas worked their last shifts at the mill a few days ago.
Saturday night they sing to a happy crowd at the Fortune Cookie in Gorham.
[fade music bring up bar sounds]
Mike Dugas says playing music helps him forget about everything else for a few hours.
Dugas: After working with some of these guys for almost twenty years, a lot of them. You get a close bond, like Brad and me, we’ve been friends for almost twenty five years now and it was through the mill. It really is v depressing now that you won’t see these people every day or every other day. They’re no longer a part of your life like they used to be.
But he and Brad Wilson plan to continue playing music together, even if they won’t work together.
Wilson says there’s not much he’ll miss about working at the mill.
Except maybe the night shift.
Wilson: The night shift there, it took a while to get used to. A Friday night, you’re going in there and seeing the regular people going out on the town. It made you to be strict. You had to get used to, I got to go in I got to do a job. It’ll be nice to be home before midnight. Now we joke around, say, hey now if we’re out after midnight we’re having fun.
[bring up guitar intro and whistle]
With just a few minutes to go before the clocks strikes twelve, Wilson and Dugas go back to
their job
this night.
[bring music up with lyrics and bring under SOQ]
SOQ
[bring up and fade out]
