Little Mill of Whiting

This page is an agglomeration of pictures from ten years.
And some just-arrived maps after I wrote the page once.
Many of my pictures could be better. . . . . some days I just took what I saw.
And there's plenty of trees hiding the view.

Below is a Map, south of Whiting, Wisconsin.
Railroad mile post 1-1/2 north of Plover.

There is a small paper mill at a bend in the river channel.
I named this page 'Little Mill of Whiting' because it is small compared to the big one a mile north.
(and not to be confused with the 'stink mill', Stevens Point Pulp and Paper Company, that has completely disappeared from McDill Pond, two miles to the northeast.)
Sometimes I don't use owner's names for the mills, I use the location, because owners change over the years.
This mill started as the Plover-Whiting Paper Mill.
Kimberly Clark had their name on it for a while.
Currently, it is the Neenah Paper Whiting Mill.

There is a low dam west of the buildings. In the 'old days', I would guess that to be a source of water power for mechanical pulp wood grinders.. But I don't know that about this mill.
No pulp wood here now.
Only boxcars are switched into the plant.

A note from Greg B., updating this page:
I was reading your page on Neenah Paper Whiting Mill. . . .
We make fine paper, writing, text, & cover. And I'm pretty sure they have always been that type of mill.
It used to be refered to as a Rag Mill, they made a lot of paper with cotton, & Water Marked Paper, and still do.

.

Many years ago, the original Wisconsin Central had a rail spur into the plant from the north.
My father-in-law remembered the track. There was a trestle over the mouth of the Plover River, where it enters the Wisconsin River. In the springtime high water, they would park gondolas on the trestle every night to hold it down so the ties wouldn't float off the bents. This was about in the 1950's.
I don't know when the trestle was removed. The pilings were sawed off at the waterline, and some still show.
About ten years ago, Whiting Road was re-aligned and a new concrete bridge built directly over the location of the trestle.
I marked the photo below with the information.

And a few hours after I posted this page, I read my email. The day before, Greg Brooks sent a plat map drawn in 1949.
This is great and very timely, so I included it on this page as soon as I saw it.
(This page is going to load slow now, I have photos getting out of order)
Now I understand how the original Wisconsin Central RR served the paper mill,
they turned east to join the GBW spur coming from the east.
Note, on the plat, the east-west portion of Whiting Road is now Tommy's Turnpike.

. . . . The mill buildings are very small compared to what's there today.
. . . . . and I think the old ROW still shows where it parallels the old 'canal' to the left of the plat number 118,
. . . . .but I'll have to look real close to see if the curve still shows across the mill property south of Tommy's Turnpike.
. . . . Modern improvements might have wiped out some of that ROW.

The next picture shows the current rail route into the mill.
The spur starts near milepost -1/2 north of Plover.
This picture is looking west along Tommy's Turnpike in Whiting.
I don't know if the switch west from the P-line has any official rail name.

Two pictures of the Commercial Job going to the mill:

. . . . . . .

Then the tracks leave the side of Tommy's Turnpike and drop down to the riverbank, 30 feet lower.
They usually switch the mill about mid-day.
Once, several years ago, I saw an SW switching here in the morning at the same time that an SW was switching the big mill. Talk about busy times on the P-line.
Usually, just the one Commercial Job locomotive works the entire area.

This picture is from years ago, before fences and security cameras.
The switcher is partially hidden by the slope of the ground along the river bank.
There's just two tracks at the end.
The left (south) one is on a trestle over the river.
The curved trestle shows on the outside, and continues curved under the loading shed.
I think two or three boxcars fit in there.

Looking southwest at the whole mill:

Close up view of the rail spur.

and a note from Tom K. :

Everything looks accurate to my knowledge of the area. Great presentation as always.

This mill is also documented by the Library of Congress. Here is a link to the pictures.
On the top of the webpage is a tab to go to data pages.
Paging through these are a description of the mill buildings and general layout are present.
I think this information dates to the mid 80's.

Try this long link to the
Library picture

Link to my original site, with no advertising, and a complete chronological list of my pages of ALL sites,
Bruce's RailRoad Pictures index page

wrote Feb 14; 2009