Point riverside

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. . . . . larger image below, and it is still 1/2 of the original file size. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .Scroll right and left.

Wisconsin River, US 10 bridge, Water Street, downtown Point, courthouse and jail, Edgewater manor apartments, Lincoln Center, paper mill

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Below is a view of the Steven Point paper mill, seen from the north. The track locations from a century ago have a lot to do with the interesting angle of the buildings. There are two paper machines, one in each tall building. But in modern times, there's no pulp mill. ( see historic note below) Is it all brought in from Kraft bales? Or is it piped in from the big pulp mill in Whiting, three miles away? There are two concrete pulp storage tanks, but they are almost hidden in this view. I would guess the Beater Room (fiber preparation area) is the lower-roof wedge-shape building in the middle. The current rail spurs enter from the other (South) side and come from the WC / CN, starting at the Vetter Switch. I marked Green lines for the GBW, and Red for the former Soo Line, now CN/WC. I marked the approximate location of the GBW tracks that were here 20 years ago. I might not have perfectly placed the two green spur tracks in the exact spots, and in modern time I don't know if there was one or two entering the north side.

. . . . . larger image below . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .Scroll right and left.

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Here's some general notes for modeling paper (and pulp) mills. The older ones that started a century ago often were closely associated with water power from the dams. At first, it was direct power, a turbine wheel shaft went directly to a millstone grinder. The pulp wood sticks were fed by hand into the grinders. This made pulp fiber suitable for newspapers. The location of the river and the railroad tracks influenced the location of the buildings. The most fantastic mill I remember is in Niagara, Wisconsin, where a steep-sided river valley affected everything. But that's another story for some other year. After chemical pulping became readily available (in the 1920's), the process of turning wood into pulp could be physically removed from the dam area. And the dam turbines were converted to power electric generators.

Below is a map from a long time ago. North is to the left, East is on top. The solid line railroad tracks belong to the GBW, and the dotted lines are WC. The paper mill is in the right center, and just a fraction of the size of the existing Beater Room. There is no dam yet on the river by the paper mill. There is a dam by the Jackson Flour Mill on the left / north. Both the flour mill and dam don't exist anymore.

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On another night, I dug out an old poor picture I copied from the wall of a restaurant. (I'm sure Jerry could find the original of this in the Portage County Historical Society Archives) It is looking north at the river, and the first buildings of the paper mill would be to the left / west. The modern-day water tower would be on the right side of this picture. The Jackson Flour mill is the major building in the view. There is nothing remaining of it today. Even that low dam is gone.

Here's the notes from a web page I made in 2005 with this photo. A Green Bay and Western fan, Tom, from Maine, filled in these details: Comparing the map to the picture, it looks like it was taken from the National Brew Co, that was on the corner of Wood and Wisconsin. The short siding, the curves, and many of the other features would match to this location. The tall structure that is prominent, would be the Jackson Flour Mill. The line extending across the river by the flour mill would be the dam that is shown on the map. That being said, the lightweight bridge would be the highway 10 bridge. The islands would have been submerged when the dam was constructed by Consolidated. . . . .Tom (Tom, I didn't save your email address. If I made any historical mistakes, please let me know and I'll update this page.)

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There is nothing remaining of this mill today.
I think that land is now a parking lot.

.. . Even that low dam is gone, it didn't show up when the river was drawn down in 2007.
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Anyway, back to the paper mill.

Particular notes for modeling the paper mill:
. . . . there is a clock 20' across.
. . . . Do some dismantling of a Timex watch and mount it to a wall.
. . . .That could be useful on a model railroad.

.. . . . It's the only mill I know of where every railcar is inside, behind closed doors.
. . . . None sit outdoors for loading and unloading.
. . . . .they get boxcars and a few tank cars.

. . . . . . A water tower with the city name on it really fixes the location.

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. . . . . . .One claim to fame for this mill is they make the paper for US Post Office Christmas stamps.

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. . . . Here's a view from the south side, two years ago in the Springtime.
. . The Jackson Flour Mill might have been at the jog in the river bank to the left / north.

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

Sometime this summer, I might change web hosts.
The index page might not be found from all my page links that I have made for 10 years.
Then try a Yahoo search for the one word:
kitehorizonpoint
for the kite aerial pictures page, which will have a link to the railroad page,
or search for
Bruce's Railroad Pictures
and that should find the new location.