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The Rhinelander, Wis. Daily News Winter Edition Thurs., May 29, 1969 . Paper progress in Rhinelander has not all been on paper....it has been written in the lives of thousands of local citizens and in the modernization of millions of dollars of equipment. Operating since 193, the Rhinelander Division, St. Regis Paper Co., has been an integral part of the Rhinelander community for years. At the turn of the century, the whine of a dozen sawmills ripped through the last of the big timber and was supplemented by the busy, rolling hum of the paper machine. The ample stands of excellent pulpwoods, scorned as saw-logs, provided impetus and raw materials for the new paper industry. Principal founders of the original Rhinelander Paper Co. were Anderson, Edward and Webster Brown, Dr. A. D. Daniels, Judge John Barnes and Paul Browne. Charles B. Pride, a contractor from Appleton, built the original mill. Total cost for the entire operation was $780,000, including $82,000 for the two original paper machines. The first half-dozen years of production at the local mill consisted of groundwood and sulfite pulp with products of newsprint and manila wrapping paper. The years from 1909 to 1913 were prosperous years during which the famous “King William” butcher wrap was developed and marketed. In 1913 and 1914, the third and fourth paper machines were installed to manufacture tissue grades. The first Glassine was produced at Ripco in 1916 after one of the first two paper machines was remodeled. This move was destined to change the very nature of the mill, its products and its markets. During the first World War, the second of the original machines was converted to make Glassine, and production was at a peak. In 1922 demand for Ripco paper dropped and in 192 a young Swedish papermaker, Folke Becker, was brought in as general superintendent. He was named manager in 192, the year number 4 Yankee machine was scrapped and replaced by a Glassine machine, and number 3 converted to produce Kbeerglaze, a supercalendered specialty paper for transparent waxed bread wrap. The fifth paper machine, another fourdrinier for Glassine, was erected in 1937, and in 1941 the sixth, “The Big Swede,” went into production. The Big Swede boasted a 182-inch wire, considered at the time by many experts to be too big and wide for Glassine and Greaseproof papers. It worked however and increased Ripco production 3% per cent to a yearly total of 33,000 tons. Expanded production in 191 required equally large and complex additions to auxilliary equipment and related departments. Ripco also bought out the Marathon Corporation’s interest in a joint converting plant in Rhinelander. After the second World War, in 1948, a yeast plant was built next to the mill to grow Torula Yeast on the wood sugars present in spent sulfite liquor. The firm’s number 8 paper machine went into production in 191. Ripeco had thus become the largest mill in Wisconsin under one roof. Annual Glassine and Greaseproof production capacity swelled to 50,000 tons. In 194, Folke Becker was elected chairman of the board and Benton R. Cancell was named president. The following year, number 3 paper machine was again rebuilt, this time at a cost of $900,000 to expand sulfite specialty capacity. The Rhinelander Paper Co. became an operating subsidiary of St. Regis Paper Co. in 196 through an exchange of stock; it became a division of the parent organization three years later. Progress under St. Regis continued at Rhinelander. A $4 million power plant was built in 1957 to utilize lower grade midwest coal and to provide additional electrical and steam capacity for future expansion. A large continuous bleach plant was constructed in 1960 with a capacity of 12 tons per day. During the same year, Ripco planted 1,150,000 trees, the largest single tree planting project ever undertaken in Wisconsin, government or private. In 1961, W. J. Davis became vice president and general manager of the division, succeeding W. R. Haselton who held the post for four years and transferred to St. Regis’ Tacoma operations. The following year saw a Lake States Division expansion in the yeast plant which doubled the growing capacity for Torula Yeast. In 1964 an additional evaporator doubled evaporation capacity. The Lake States Division was now capable of processing all collectible spent sulphite liquor. The firm’s converting department was moved to a new building adjacent to the main mill in 1965 to replace the older facilities at the south side of town. The new department incorporated a waxer laminator capable of waxing the laminating simultaneously. The largest expansion since 1941 began in the spring of 1966 with the construction of a large paper machine complex. The project included a new machine, “The North Star,” with a capacity of over 2,000 tons per year. It replaced the original two paper machine installed in 1903. The North Star, was erected in a new steel building painted with the blue colors of St. Regis, thus providing a colorful addition to the big plant. The entire project was completed in the spring of 1968 at a cost of about $8 million and included new stock preparation facilities, a supercalender and rewinder each capable of handling full width rolls from the new machine. Production of paper products at Rhinelander had now swelled to about 70,000 tons per year, more than double what it was after the big expansion in 191. The latest installation at the local plant was a huge spray dryer for the production of yeast at the Lake States Division. The new unit replaced four drum dryers and is capable of evaporating 8,000 pounds of water per hour. Upon completion this past April, the Lake States facilities became equal to the most modern food processing plants in existence today. Yes...there has been much paper progress in Rhinelander...and it has not all been on paper. IT WOULD HARDLY BE POSSIBLE TO POSE ALL OF RIPCO’S EMPLOYES FOR A GROUP PICTURE TODAY, BUT IT WAS IN 1930, AS CAN BE SEEN IN THE PHOTO ABOVE. ti THE RIPCO PLANT TODAY AND, INSET, AS IT APPEARED IN 1908, SHORTLY AFTER COMPLETION. INTERIOR SHOT AT RIPCO SHOWS FIRM’S NEWEST MACHINE, THE ‘NORTH STAR’
Newspaper Details
Rhinelander Daily News
Rhinelander, Wisconsin, US
Thu, May 29, 1969
Page 33
Full Page
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USA 05 May 2026
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