Millinocket Paper Mill Site, Maine

Great Northern Paper built the first version of its paper mill in 1899, and the town of Millinocket started to grow up around it. By 1911, there were 5,000 people in town, and by 1936, the mill was the largest newsprint mill in America, making paper for the newspapers of a growing nation. Great Northern, which had built another mill in East Millinocket, employed nearly 5,000 people in the region at its peak. But changes in the market, and a decrease in the demand for newsprint, led to a decline by the 1990s, and Great Northern filed for bankruptcy in 2003, leading to the mill closing for good in 2008. In 2011, the machinery was auctioned off, and most of the mill was torn down. In 2014, a nonprofit redevelopment entity, Our Katahdin, bought the 1,400 acre mill site for $1, and the slow and ongoing redevelopment process began.