| Mill Staff |
Power House | Digesters & Acid Plant | Bleach Plant |
| Machine Room | Finishing & Shipping | Mill Maintenance Departments |
| 1901 | Amendments to the BC land act were made, thus enabling company's to lease Crown land for the purpose of manufacturing wood pulp and or paper. Quatsino Power and Pulp Co, acquired 56,669 acres of land on northern Vancouver Island and intended to build a pulp and paper mill at The mouth of the Marble River for reasons unknown this plan did not materialize. |
| 1904 | Wood Pulp Lease covering 46,386 acres at Quatsino Sound issued to Quatsino Power & Pulp Company. This lease will be passed on to Colonial Lumber and Paper Mills, Whalen Pulp & Paper Mills, B.C. Pulp & Paper Company; Alaska Pine & Cellulose, Rayonier, Western Forest Products and Western Pulp Partnership. |
 Using high pressure water to clear
the mill landscape |
 View of mill construction, sawmill /
wood
room in foreground 1917 |
 Construction
of the wharf and warehouse
|
|
|
Machine Room
|
Japanese Worker
Stacking Pulp |
| 1917, | With the high demand for pulp due to
the First World War being
in its
second year, the mill was built at its present location on
Neroutsos
Inlet by Colonial
Lumber and Paper
Mills. Whalen
Pulp &
Paper Mills acquired control of B.C.
Sulfite
Fiber Company, Empire Pulp &
Paper Mills, and the Colonial Lumber
and Pulp
Mills at Port Alice. The Whalen brothers then cleared 60 acres of land at the mill site to establish a town site with 50 houses, a hotel and a rooming house naming the town “Port Alice” after their mother Alice Whalen. |
| 1918 | The first pulp was being produced and shipped from the Port Alice mill. |
| 1919 | The
first
ship load of lumber from the Saw Mill was being shipped to San
Francisco, modifications
continued with
the mill and a 4th digester was added bringing the daily pulp output to 80 air dried tonns per day. |
 Loading Pulp ship by horse and cart
|
 Pulp ship being loaded |
| 1923 | Whalen Pulp & Paper Mills goes
into receivership. Price Warehouse manager G. F. Gyles is initial
Receiver, then becomes deputy receiver and E. M. Mills of Rayonier is the receiver. |
| 1925 | I. W. Killam
forms B.C. Pulp &
Paper Company to take over assets of Whalen Pulp including Port Alice
and Woodfibre mills and Vancouver Island and Queen Charlotte Islands forest operations. A fifth digester added to original three at Port Alice mill increasing daily machine output to 100 air dried tons per day. |
| 1926 | the mill was being operated by BC Pulp and Paper Co. During this time upgrades included a Change over from Paper Pulp to Dissolving Pulp and Caustic stage was added. Pulp being produced was supplied to Japan for their Rayon industry. |
| 1928 | Albert Moore, former logging manager for Whalen Pulp and paper at Swanson Bay moves to Quatsino Sound and commences A-frame logging for the Port Alice pulp mill. |
 Rayon heading for
Japan
|
 Hand loading a ship
|
 Gang Way, looking South
East
|
| 1931 | Albert Moore brings first caterpillar tractor into Quatsino Sound. He bought it from Morrison Tractor & Equipment which was taken over in by Earl Finning and became the largest equipment company in B.C |
| 1933 | Hathaway River floating Spry Camp towed to Neroutsos Inlet near Port Alice mill. |
| 1935 | Change over from Paper Pulp to Dissolving Pulp gets underway at Port Alice mill. |
| 1936 | Caustic stage added at Port Alice mill so rayon can be made from sulfite pulp. Spry Camp of B.C. Pulp & Paper Company at Port Alice has one huge log float holding all camp facilities for 150-175 loggers, bunkhouses, cookhouse, office, commissary and several family homes. Only the repair shop is on land. The logging operation uses open topped White trucks exclusively. |
| 1937 |
Production of Dissolving Pulp commences at Port Alice mill. |
| 1938 |
credit problems with Japan curtailed the pulp production and the mill was shut sown for 14 months. With the start of the second world war the mill had restarted and back in full operation but again under a new ownership. |
 Machine Room, Power House, Digesters
|
 Power House, Digesters, Blow Pits
|
 Acid Plant, lime storage
|
| 1942 | Eve Smith. becomes first female hired at Port Alice mill, to work in the lab. |
| 1944 | Norseman Air Craft from Coal Harbour crashes into town site, killing 5 airmen. |
| 1948 | Port Alice Mill wins Canadian Pulp & Paper Association safety competition Shield, again in '48, 49, and in perpetuity in 1950. Subsequently, the Port Alice mill won every award or trophy for safety on the Pacific Coast |
| 1949 |
Port Alice sawmill destroyed by fire. |
 1949 Saw Mill Fire
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 1951 | Alaska Pine Company is
granted
Forest
Management License # 6 on Northern Vancouver Island which became TFL 6 The Koerner Family of Vancouver Joined with Abitibi Power & Paper Company purchased B.C. Pulp & Paper Company and form Alaska Pine & Cellulose Ltd. A $6 million expansion of Port Alice mill gets under way to upgrade final product. First stage of Port Alice mill $8 million modernization program completed; bleach plant, bleach screen room, water supply, and wood plant. Spry Camp towed to Holberg to become largest floating logging camp. |
 Spry Camp Logging truck on
"corduroy" road
|
 Spry Camp after being towed o Holberg |
 Wooden road at right of photo
|
| 1952 | Construction
commences on
new road
to Victoria lake in preparation for new pipeline to Port Alice mill. New wood preparation plant goes into operation at Port Alice mill. Mahatta River logging operation on south shore of Quatsino Sound commences operation. |
| 1954 |
Rayonier
Canada Inc. of New York
aquires a major interest in the Alaska
Pine Company and invests another $14 million into the mills
modernization. |
| 1955 | The $14 million upgrade announced for Port Alice mill to increase production from 220 tons per day to 350 tons per day with new boiler, turbine, two digesters and a pulp drying machine. |
| 1957
|
In
January, Rayonier
purchases
balance of common stock of Alaska Pine & Cellulose except for a
small number of shares. Completion of $14 million expansion and modernization program at Port Alice mill. |
| 1959 |
Alaska Pine Company name changes to Rayonier Canada (B.C.). |
| 1960 | Rayonier takes over Juene Landing forestry operation from W. F. Gibson. |
| 1964 | March 26th. Anchorage Alaska is rocked by a 9.2 Earthquake Port Alice and Mill is hit by the Tsunami the destruction floods the woodplant and homes along the waterfront, wharfs are ripped from their moorings and boats are sunk including the RCMP boat and boat house. |
| 1968 | International Telephone & Telegraph acquires all the shares of Rayonier Canada which continues to operate as a subsidiary of ITT until 1980 when the Rayonier forestry operations are sold to a new company incorporated for this purpose, Western Forest Products. |
| 1971 | Conversion from calcium base to ammonia base at Port Alice mill at a cost of more than $2 million. |
| 1972 |
Walter Koerner retires as board chairman and as a director of Rayonier Canada at age 73 after a 33 year association with the operation since 1939. |
1974 |
 Port Alice Pulp Mill (Rayonier Canada) 1973 Photo, Bob K Wright Construction commences on first stage of a $50 million water pollution clean-up system at the Port Alice mill. Spent liquor incineration system due to go into operation in 1976. |
| 1977 | A
$50 million recovery unit
goes
into service at Port Alice mill. ITT Rayonier transfers shares of Rayonier Canada to ITT Canada, and Rayonier Canada acquires ITT Industries of Canada as a wholly owned subsidiary. This amounts to about 30 Canadian operations. |
| 1978 | Rayonier Canada amalgamates with Rayonier Canada (B C.), the continuing company being Rayonier Canada (B.C.). |
 1980 |
Rayonier Canada forestry operations sold to Western Forest Products which was formed for this purpose by Doman Industries, Whonnock Industries, and British Columbia Forest Products as equal one third partners. |
| 1982 |
Western Forest Products operations adjusted with the result the company no longer conducts sawmill business, but concentrates all efforts on forest operations and the production of kraft pulp, and sulphite dissolving pulp. |
| 1983
|
In December a major restructuring and refinancing of Western Forest Products is completed with a public issue of $110 million Western Pulp Partnership units and the completion of related debt financing to permit Western Pulp to undertake a rebuild of the Woodfibre mill and make capital improvements at the Port Alice mill. |
| 1984
|
Western Pulp Limited Partnership is formed to buy the Rayonier Canada pulp mills and sawmills. A $200 million modernization of Woodfibre mill is planned. |
| 1988
|
Western
Forest Products
acquires
Western Pulp Limited Partnership. Western Pulp commences an $89 million effluent quality improvement program. |
| 1995 | In August, a 250 tonne Chlorine Dioxide generator with a 14 tonne per day production capacity was installed at the Port Alice mill. Chlorine dioxide is a chlorine substitute and its use reduces dioxins and furans in the effluent. |
