Note: The following is one of a series of columns looking at the origins and growth of the agriculture industry in Southeast Georgia and Bulloch County.

"Paper-Making Industry in Savannah,” was published in the Georgia Historical Quarterly (2000). They stated “Zachariah Sims founded the first paper mill in Georgia at Scull’s Shoal on the Oconee River near Athens” which produced a rough newsprint for several years before closing.

The Georgia Acts of 1873 incorporated the Atlantic Paper Company in Savannah, and was built at on Bryan Street along the Ogeechee Canal. In 1931, the next pulpwood plant was established in Savannah.

It was Dr. Herty’s “Savannah Pulp and Paper Laboratory, an experimental facility on the west end of River Street.” Herty received $20,000 from the Chemical Foundation of New York and the state of Georgia.

Herty’s success attracted the attention of the Union Bag and Paper Company. On June 6, 1935, Union Bag secured a lease for the huge Hermitage estate to the west of Savannah.

The plant cost some $4 million. In order to save money, Union Bag repurposed many of the existing Diamond Match Company buildings on the site.

The “Smell of Money” revealed that in 1946, the Union Bag Savannah Plant equaled three or four average pulp and paper mills in size. Their employees were paid some of the highest wages in the industry.

The Research Notes of the Southeastern Forest Experiment Station of Asheville, N.C. (1959) contained the article “Pulpwood Price Trend in the Southeast.”

It stated that “Whereas rough pine pulpwood sold for $3.60 in the 1930’s, in 1958 it brought $15.50. Nearly 157 million dollars were paid for the 10,289,000 cords of pulpwood produced during 1958.”

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Forest Service Report, written by A.S. Todd Jr. and A.C. Nichols, entitled 1959 Pulpwood Prediction in the South, was published in the Forest Survey Release (1960).

Georgia produced 4,354,500 standard cords of all species of wood: 4,009,000 cords were pine, 301,900 were soft hardwoods, and 43,000 were hard hardwoods.

Of this wood, Bulloch County produced 31,996 standard cords of all species of wood. Of the wood cut, 29,649 cords were pine, and 2,347 were cords of hardwoods.

In 1959, there were 76 pulp mills in the Southeast. The 10 mills in Georgia produced 6,785 tons of wood: 16,515 thousand cords were pine, 3,773 cords were hardwood, and 2,177 were pine chips.

The Bulloch Herald on Oct. 22, 1959 announced the opening of a new pulpwood yard at Brooklet. The Union Bag owners requested “you consider this new facility when selling your pulpwood.”

Next, the Bulloch Times issue of Nov. 9, 1961 announced the Union Bag Portal pulpwood yard was now open. Union Bag officials stated, “Landowners in this area are blessed with good timber growing land.”

The paper announced the “yard” would receive wood from as far out as thirty miles from Portal. The woodyard was located west of Portal on U.S. Highway 80.

Furthermore, “It is equipped with the latest mechanical equipment to assure producers and timber growers of efficient quick service...part of a field farmed by J.E. Brown...(was) purchased from Mrs. Menteria Aaron.

The owners promised that “Union Bag-Camp Foresters will provide technical assistance (in) woodlands management for landowners (and) free tree marking service on all pulpwood shipped through the woodyard.”

It was declared that, “Since each pulpwood truck is scheduled to bring $25,000 annually into the area in which it operates, the economic impact of this new facility should certainly be felt in the Portal area.”

Roger Allen is a local lover of history. Allen provides a brief look each week at the area's past. E-mail Roger at rwasr1953@gmail.com.