The Willamette Falls are located between Oregon City and West Linn.  The falls are horse-shoe shaped and were once the fishing grounds for the Siletz, Clackamas, Grande Ronde and Warm Springs Indians.  The Indians would harvest Chinook salmon and lamprey eel at the falls.  Industrialization first brought a saw mill, then paper mills, hydroelectric dams and finally, shipping locks to the region.  The falls are a complex mixture of natural beauty, paper production, power production, shipping chronicles and fishing, producing a rich history in the region.  In recent years, pollution and planetary responsibility have closed most of the paper mills.  The future of the falls remains in question.

From a Paper Mill's Perspective:

For centuries, life in Oregon has revolved around the Willamette River. Businesses and families used the river for transportation, power and entertainment—it was, and still is, a necessary and invaluable element of life throughout the state.

The Willamette Falls, created the ideal, natural location for logging mills, towns and businesses, which thrived around the banks of the river. In the late 1800's, the Willamette Falls provided the first long distance transmission of power in the U.S. by transmitting power 13 miles to downtown Portland. PGE continues to operate a working power station on the site.

Paper manufacturing was a natural evolution and a by-product of the pulp generated by the mills and natural power created by the falls and in 1889, the paper mill was built in West Linn. For over 120 years, the monolithic mills rising from the river's edge have dominated and controlled the banks of the Willamette Falls region.  Sustaining the nearby communities with jobs, the paper manufacturing industry and has been an integral part of  the Oregon City/West Linn history.

The mill opened as Willamette Pulp & Paper in 1889 and merged with Crown Columbia in 1914 to become the Crown-Willamette Paper Company. Early products included newsprint, creped toweling and gun cotton. In 1928, the company merged again, this time with Zellerbach Paper Company of San Francisco and the mill was now known as Crown-Zellerbach. In 1947, Crown-Zellerbach pioneered the coated paper process—influencing paper manufacturing across the west. In 1986, the company was acquired by James River Corporation and by 1990, was manufacturing coated paper exclusively under the Simpson Paper name.

Willamette Falls, looking north. Blue Heron paper mill on right, in Oregon City, which operated as the Hawley Pulp and Paper Mill, 1908-1948, operated under the Publishers' Paper Company from 1948-1986, Jefferson Smurfit Corporation 1986-2000 and Blue Heron Paper (2001 thru 2011). On the left is the West Linn Paper Company mill, which opened as Willamette Pulp & Paper in 1889, and after mergers was operated by the Crown Willamette Paper Company (1914-1928),  Crown Zellerbach Paper Company (1928-1986), James River Corporation (1986-1999) and West Linn Paper (1997 thru present). 

Circa 1867

2014

Pollution Time Line

1892  Chemical/Sulfite paper milling begins at Crown Paper Mill
1907  Oregon Board of Health refers to Willamette River as "An Open Sewer"
1913  Complaints against massive sulfur smoke from Mills brought, no response 
1921  William Finley files complaint v Hawley Paper for river pollution
1935  Up to this point, ALL waste products dumped directly into Willamette River
1948  State challenges Mills about dumping sulfur byproducts into Willamette River

1949  Publisher's Paper warns that stronger environmental laws will close the paper mill

1953  Publisher's Paper begins barging 120,000 gallon batches of wastes into Columbia River
1962  Tom McCall produces documentary, Pollution in Paradise
1964  Tom McCall becomes governor of Oregon, takes on polluting industries
1966  State orders Willamette River clean up
1967  Publisher's Paper builds wastewater treatment facilities (clarifier)
1969  Oregon Department of Environmental Quality established 
1972  Congress approves Clean Water Act 
1970  Publisher's Paper sulfur discharges decrease by 90% 
1974  DEQ forces Publisher's Paper to stop dumping Zinc into Willamette River
1977  DEQ forces Crown-Zellerbach to stop dumping Zinc into Willamette River

1985  EPA first discovers Dioxin (from paper bleaching process) in fish and warns the public
1993  DEQ study finds 80% of Willamette fish have deformed gills
2001  Blue Heron stops dumping hot waste water (100 million gals of 100 degree water/day) into river

  

When the Blue Heron mill closed in February 2011, company officials cited “competition from China for recycled paper, which has increased the cost of materials, as a major factor in the shutdown.” Greg Pallesen, vice president of the Association of Western Pulp & Paper Workers, told the Oregonian that “No matter what they pay for it, the Chinese are going to outbid them because of cheap labor and no environmental controls.”

Industries tend to relocate to places that lack stronger environmental and labor laws. When we look out today at the relatively clean Willamette River, we can see evidence of previous generations’ success in abating pollution locally. What we can’t see from our riverside vantage, however, are other rivers throughout the world being polluted by the pulp & paper and other industries. Certainly a conundrum.

Willamette Falls Time Line

1810  European fur traders discover Willamette Falls

1829  Hudson's Bay est land claim at Willamette Falls
1830  John McLoughlin builds water powered saw mill

1842  Oregon City est on east side of falls

1843  Town of Linn est on west side falls
1863  Imperial Flour Mill opens (OC)
1864  Oregon City Woolen Mills built at Willamette Falls

1866  Oregon City Paper Manufacture Co opens next to falls

1873  Willamette Falls Locks completed
1883  Portland Flouring Mills absorbs Imperial Flour Mill

1888  Willamette Falls Electric Co (PGE) builds hydroelectric dam on falls
1889  Willamette Falls Pulp and Paper Co (West Linn side) opens
1889  Crown Paper Co (West Linn) opens

1895  Second dam built on west side of falls
1908  Concrete dam built to form "horse-shoe" shape of falls
1908  Hawley Pulp and Paper Mill opens
1910  McLoughlin house moved to hill top
1914  Crown Willamette Pulp and Paper Co merger
1928  Crown Zellerbach Paper Co forms
1932  Great Depression closes Oregon City Woolen Mills
1948  Publisher's Paper buys Hawley Pulp and Paper
1986  James River buy Crown Zellerback Paper
1986  Jefferson Smurfit buys Publisher's Paper
1997  West Linn Mill starts milling paper
2000  Georgia Pacific buys James River Paper Mill
2001  Blue Heron buys Jefferson Smurfit
2011  Blue Heron Paper Mill closes
2014  Eclipse Development Group buys Blue Heron Mill (OC)
2014  Willamette Falls Legacy Project

Revisionist History

It is easy for people to come to the falls today, and after seeing the massive concrete and steel buildings coupled with past air and water pollution problems, criticize the mills for industrialization of the falls.  If we could go back in time, what would we do differently? Leave the falls alone?  Do the same thing over again?  Some powerful things have happened over the years.  The Age of Enlightenment.  Manifest Destiny.  The Industrial Revolution.  Electricity. Think about the power of electricity and how it has changed the world and our lives over the last 150 years.  Think about the power of knowledge and information disseminated thru the books, magazines and newspapers (printed on paper from mills such as these) over the last 150 years.  And how that has shaped the world we live in today.  Think about how hard it would be to ignore all of these new "technological improvements" and have the wisdom and forethought to leave the falls alone.

It is easy to say: "We should have left the falls alone, the Indians had them first".

References

James B Hillegas-Elting 
The Oregonian
OregonLive  
West Linn Paper Co. 
Willamette Falls Legacy Project