Ketchikan Pulp Company was a

pulp mill A pulp mill is a manufacturing facility that converts wood chips or other plant fiber sources into a thick fiber board which can be shipped to a paper mill for further processing. Pulp can be manufactured using mechanical, semi-chemical, or ful ...

located on the north shore of Ward Cove, from

Ketchikan Ketchikan ( ; tli, Kichx̱áan) is a city in and the borough seat of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough of Alaska. It is the state's southeasternmost major settlement. Downtown Ketchikan is a National Historic District. With a population at the 20 ...

, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

of Alaska. Owned by

Louisiana-Pacific Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, commonly known as "LP", is an American building materials manufacturer. It was founded in 1973 and is currently based in Nashville, Tennessee. LP pioneered the U.S. production of oriented strand board (OSB) panels. ...

, it operated between 1954 and 1997. It was the last pulp mill to operate in the state. Along with the Sitka pulp mill, the mill was built as part of a

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

economic development program for Southeast Alaska. Ketchikan Pulp Company was originally built as a joint venture between Puget Sound Pulp & Lumber Co. and

American Viscose Corporation American Viscose Corporation was an American division of the British firm Courtaulds, which manufactured rayon and other synthetic fibres. The company operated from 1910 to 1976 when it was renamed Avtex. Avtex closed in 1990. History Establish ...

Over time

Georgia Pacific Georgia-Pacific LLC is an American pulp and paper company based in Atlanta, Georgia, and is one of the world's largest manufacturers and distributors of tissue, pulp, paper, toilet and paper towel dispensers, packaging, building products and r ...

acquired Puget Sound Pulp & Lumber and

FMC Corporation FMC Corporation is an American chemical manufacturing company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which originated as an insecticide producer in 1883 and later diversified into other industries. In 1941 at the beginning of US involvemen ...

acquired American Viscose. Eventually, the company was spun off along with other holdings to form the Louisiana-Pacific Corp., the plant's new owner. KPC was a

sulfite process The sulfite process produces wood pulp that is almost pure cellulose fibers by treating wood chips with solutions of sulfite and bisulfite ions. These chemicals cleave the bonds between the cellulose and lignin components of the lignocellulose. A ...

dissolving pulp mill, designed to manufacture a product called "Tongacell," made from cellulose fiber from

Spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

and

Tsuga ''Tsuga'' (, from Japanese (), the name of ''Tsuga sieboldii'') is a genus of conifers in the subfamily Abietoideae of Pinaceae, the pine family. The common name hemlock is derived from a perceived similarity in the smell of its crushed folia ...

trees, which is used in the manufacture of various

rayon Rayon is a semi-synthetic fiber, made from natural sources of regenerated cellulose, such as wood and related agricultural products. It has the same molecular structure as cellulose. It is also called viscose. Many types and grades of viscose f ...

products. Feedstock for the mill was harvested from the

Tongass National Forest The Tongass National Forest () in Southeast Alaska is the largest U.S. National Forest at . Most of its area is temperate rain forest and is remote enough to be home to many species of endangered and rare flora and fauna. The Tongass, which i ...

under guaranteed 50-year supply contracts that enabled the private companies to commit the large development investments in an area with only one log supplier (the USFS). This became controversial in the late 1980s, due to environmental concerns with the scale of

old-growth forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...

harvesting and uninformed criticism of the alleged multimillion-dollar subsidies. In 1990, the

Tongass Timber Reform Act The Tongass Timber Reform Act (TTRA) is an act that was intended to amend the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), with the primary intention to increase the protection of the Tongass National Forest from logging. The TTRA was ...

directed the agency to terminate the long-term timber contracts, and both mills closed shortly thereafter. The last bale of pulp paper to come off the mill is on display at the

Southeast Alaska Discovery Center The Southeast Alaska Discovery Center is a visitor center in Ketchikan, Alaska, Ketchikan, Alaska, operated by the United States Forest Service as part of the Tongass National Forest.

in Ketchikan.

References

Defunct pulp and paper companies Pulp and paper companies of the United States Pulp and paper mills in the United States Buildings and structures in Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska 1954 establishments in Alaska 1997 disestablishments in Alaska Defunct companies based in Alaska Tongass National Forest {{KetchikanGatewayAK-geo-stub