First Kraft Pulp in the United States
Roanoke Rapids, Halifax County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
First Kraft Pulp In United States. Was made here by the sulphate process using southern pine in 1909, by the Roanoke Rapids Paper Manufacturing Company.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
In 1909 the Roanoke Rapids Paper Manufacturing Company made the first kraft, or sulphate-process, wood pulp in the United States here, using the abundant southern pine of the region. The kraft process, which produced exceptionally strong paper, would go on to transform American papermaking and turn the pine forests of the South into the heart of the nation's pulp-and-paper industry.
Why it matters
This mill town marks the birthplace of a process that helped make the American South a papermaking powerhouse for the century that followed.
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Related events
- · First kraft (sulphate) pulp produced in the U.S. (1909)
Themes & tags
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