This project included a historic evaluation of the Ketchikan Pulp Company’s Ward Cove Pulp Mill. Below is a brief history of Alaska’s first industrial pulp mill.
In 1947, by authority granted by Congress in the Tongass Timber Bill, the United States Forest Service (USFS), lead by B. Frank Heintzleman, regional forester and later Governor of Alaska, was able to negotiate a 50-year tree cutting contract to help encourage the establishment of a stable-year-round industry for Southeast Alaska. A committee of businessmen in Ketchikan began to lobby for a pulp mill in their area, and in 1948, American Viscose Corporation and Puget Sound Pulp and Timber Company formed Ketchikan Pulp Company as a joint venture. The establishment of a pulp interest in Southeast Alaska had been the intent of the USFS for years. Under the 50-year contract, the KPC obtained cutting rights for approximately 8.25 billion board feet of timber within the Tongass National Forest, specifically within the northern half of Prince of Wales Island and the northwest portion of Revillagigedo Island. In exchange, the company agreed to build a mill that would employ the local population. At the time it was built, in 1954, the mill cost nearly $52.5 million to complete and represented the largest single industrial investment made in the Territory of Alaska. It was also the first pulp mill in the Territory. It took three years to acquire the 96 acres and about 400 lots in the Wacker subdivision, but in 1952 KPC awarded a $46 million construction contract to Ward Cove Builders, formed jointly by Howard S. Wright Company and Guy F. Atkinson Company. Barge loads of building material and equipment arrived at the cove and construction started in May 1952, when the area was prepped for the foundations of the office buildings (Figure 16). Hundreds of men and machines pushed, pulled, drilled, derricked, welded, worked brick, installed and made the necessary improvements at Ward Cove (Keeny 2007:3).
In a July, 1954 supplement of the Ketchikan Alaska Chronicle, Ketchikan Mayor George H. Beck calls KPC, the greatest event in Ketchikan since the 1898 Gold Rush. He went on to say:
The beginning of pulp manufacturing by the Ketchikan Pulp Company marks the start of a new era for Alaska. It is the greatest step forward in the development of Alaska since the discovery of gold in 1898. It means year around industry utilizing the huge timber resources that for generations have been going to waste. It is a permanent monument to the men of vision – engineers, chemists, planners, builders — and back of them the men of finance whose confidence in Alaska made the mill possible. We of Ketchikan and this area realize and appreciate our good fortune and we pledge our support and assistance wherever possible to make this first mill a great success. We are justifiably proud of “our pulp mill” and as citizens of Ketchikan we are keeping pace with the demands the mill has placed on our community. The 2 ½ million dollar high school will be ready this fall. The street and sewer work totaling over 4 million dollars is progressing rapidly and the 3 ¼ million dollar utilities expansion will be completed this years. The latter includes a new dial phone system and almost doubles the electric energy production. Four large apartment houses with a total of almost 500 apartments have been built, to say nothing of new business established for the welfare and happiness of new citizens. We salute the new mill; we welcome as fellow citizens the management and personnel and trust that as years go on we will continue to work together for the continued development of Alaska.
Two years later, in June 1954, the first shipment of pulp left Ward Cove destined for Buenos Aires, Argentina. When the pulp mill was operating, it processed bundled logs, towed by tug boats from logging camps. Spruce and hemlock were the primary wood species processed at the facility. Logs brought to the mill were de-barked, and cut into wood chips. In the pulp making process, wood chips and logs were digested under pressure with magnesium bisulfite in brick lined digestive reactors. After the digestion cycle, the resulting pulp was buffered with slurried magnesium oxide. KPC then separated the pulp from both undigested materials and the buffering liquid, using a series of filters and vacuum systems. After purification by washing and screening, the pulp was bleached using chlorine based solutions (Ginter Environmental Services, November 21, 2005). The pulp was then dried, formed into sheets, cut and rolled. The finished pulp was used to manufacture products such as fabrics, rayon, cellophane, explosives, lacquers, moldable products, pharmaceuticals, food additives, sponges, emulsifiers for food and paint, artificial leathers, laminates, tissues and specialty papers. The specialized pulp product required that 60-65 percent of the incoming wood material be extracted in the pulping process (Ketchikan Pulp Company Marine Operable Unit, Record of Decision, March 29, 2000). Prior to 1971, when state and federal environmental protection regulations were being introduced, effluent from the facility was discharged directly into Ward Cove.