Courtland Paper Mill Site, Alabama

This was the site of the Courtland Paper Mill until operations ceased in 2014, and much of the mill was torn down in 2017, leaving a massive concrete slab at a rural site next to the Tennessee River. The plant, including waste water ponds and storage yards, covered 2,200 acres, and employed hundreds of people. It was one of the largest of the plants operated by the Champion International Paper Company, which formed in 1893 in Pepperell, Massachusetts, and grew to become the largest coated paper manufacturer in the USA by World War II. The company restructured a few times over the following decades, and had several plants, including in Hamilton, Ohio, Pasadena, Texas, and Canton, North Carolina by the time it was purchased by International Paper in 2000.