Columbia Communities: Camas

Continuity and Change at the Camas Paper Mill

A page from an undated scrapbook now located at the Two Rivers Historical Museum. Courtesy of the Camas-Washougal Historical Society

In 1883, publisher Henry Pittock established the Columbia River Paper Company in Camas to supply newsprint for his Portland newspaper, The Oregonian. In the past decades the mill has gone through five different mergers, but it has been operating continuously for nearly a hundred-and-twenty years. While the mill remains Camas's main employer, the company has continued to automate and reduce the work force. In 1969, 3000 men and women were employed at the mill. Today there are 1650 employees.

* 1905 The Columbia River Paper Company merges with the Crown Paper Company in Oregon City to become the Crown Columbia Paper Company. The new company greatly expands the capacity and size of the Camas mill.

*1906 The bag factory is added to the Camas mill, providing the first real employment for women.

*1914 The Crown Columbia Paper Company merges with the Willamette Pulp and Paper Company, forming the Crown Willamette Paper Company. The Crown Willamette Paper Company builds and buys a number of new mills, including one in British Columbia.
* The female employees of the Crown Willamette Paper Company's bag factory in Camas launch the mill's first employee strike.

*1917 The mill employees go on an unsuccessful strike seeking higher wages and shorter work days. The mill's first union is organized. However, union strikers are replaced by nonunion workers.

*1925 The Camas mill establishes the first Kraft mill on the West Coast. The Kraft process produces unbleached paper, which was used for butcher wrapping, assorted types of bags, and numerous other products.

* 1928 The Zellerbach Corporation, one of the largest companies on the West Coast, buys the stock of Crown Willamette. The ensuing merger creates the Crown Zellerbach Corporation. By the 1930s, Crown Zellerbach is the largest paper company on the West Coast, and the second largest in the United States with assets totaling over $102 million. The company produces more than 2,500 tons of paper a day in twelve separate mills and is able to control the price of paper on the West Coast. The company owns 500,000 acres of timber. The Camas mill, Crown Zellerbach's leading producer, becomes the largest specialty paper mill in the world with the ability to create more than 400 varieties of paper.

*1941 Vera Berney, the first woman supervisor, is hired.

*1942 Women are hired to fill absent servicemen's jobs during World War II. The mill's women and men build ship rudders, cranes, and other wartime materials for the war effort.

*1950s The mill hires its first African American employees.

*1969 The different pay scale for men and women at the Camas mill is eliminated.

*1964 The Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers is formed and becomes a rival union at the Camas mill. The AWPPW members strike for nearly two weeks, and wins local recognition.

*1969 Camas AWPPW members strike and negotiate a more favorable contract.

*1971 The company locks out employees after they threaten to strike. The workers go on strike for forty days.

*1978 AWPPW workers launch an unsuccessful 7-month strike.

*1985 British corporate raider Sir James Goldsmith forcibly acquires the Crown Zellerbach Corporation. Goldsmith then sells off most of CZ's mills, including the Camas mill, to the James River Corporation of Richmond, Virginia. Goldsmith retains the 1.6 million acres of company-owned timberland.

*1997 The James River and Fort Howard Corporations merge to become the Fort James Corporation, creating the largest tissue producer in North America. While the mill at one time produced specialty paper, napkins, and bags, it now produces computer paper, paper towels and toilet paper.