A D V E R T I S E M E N T
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Submitted photo
Undated photos from the Willamette Falls Heritage Foundation above and below show the post World War II times at the Crown Zellerbach Paper Mill, now the West Linn Paper Co.
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Seated in well padded pews at West Linn Lutheran Church last month, paper mill workers stared at a screen above the alter. The first film-viewing was a blessing of sorts for a locally produced documentary on the Crown Zellerbach paper mill, which is located in the Bolton neighborhood along the Willamette River.
Produced over the past year and a half by the Willamette Falls Heritage Foundation and funded by The Kinsman Foundation, the film features 17 former employees who tell their stories about working at the mill — West Linn’s only industrial business and one of the city’s major employer. The stories of the employees, who were hired between 1927 and 1972, span generations of workplace experience — including times before equal rights, safety committees and environmental protection efforts.
The movie describes how paper was made when the mill was built, and it also defines the laborers who built West Linn’s middle class after World War II.
“They’re the heros of industry,” said Sandy Carter, executive director of the Willamette Falls Heritage Foundation who served as producer, interviewer and off-line editor on the film, titled Grindstones, Boomsticks, Tattletales and Nips: The stories and the people of Crown Zellerbach International, West Linn, Oregon, Division 1928-1986.
“People need to know where their roots are,” Carter said. “And they need to value the hard work that created the middle class in West Linn.”
While the workers viewed the film they laughed, talked about “the good old days” and moved seats a few times to reminisce with old friends.
Rolling with
the punches
Stories about the union work, near death experiences, log rolling, prank pulling and recounts of how nobody wanted to work in the grinder room are documented.
Some said that working outside cured a hangover by noon.
Many with hourly wages eventually ended up in management roles. Since there were no computers, workers used their five senses. Whistles are cues for workers to leave their machines when pulp arrived.
And everyone rolled with the punches.
“It was kind of a rough and ready place to work. There were a lot of tough guys doing that kind of work,” said Harold E. King from Oregon City, who started working at Crown Zellerbach in 1948. “Almost everything was done by (hand) labor.”
Machines were of different ages, roll length and speeds and worked best with different types of paper. Pineapple mulch from the No. 7 machine would ruin your clothes, and No. 8 was the slowest machine in the mill. Electricity from some of the machines was problematic for men who had fashionable 1960s long hair.
Within private home-interview sessions Carter became familiar with the work ethic at the mill.
“These people loved their women and loved their children. That’s why they did this difficult work,” said Carter. “I was so impressed by the whole culture.”
Working as a team
With jobs available around the clock, the mill was often busy with activity.
“The first three days I worked there I brought my lunch home. I never had time to eat it,” said George Droz, 79, now a Beavercreek resident. West Linn resident Ed Witherspoon was hired in 1943 and was paid a wage of 83 cents an hour. He said that last month’s film viewing was a nice way to reconnect with people that he worked with for more than three decades, most of that time within the maintenance department.
“The longer you (worked) over there you had more responsibility too. And that didn’t help any,” said Witherspoon, 80, who began working on the No. 6 paper machine. “The work was really hard at first until I got used to the heavy lifting.”
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