It’s a thing, for sure. I had an uncle that lived in Lufkin, TX for a few years, where there was a paper mill. Loved visiting my uncle, hated the smell the whole time I was there!
Not sure what was worse, the paper mill of the sewer treatment plant across the river in Camas. Paper mill is now closed, so the treatment plant is all you get and it gets pretty ripe.
When I grew up in Bellevue, Washington in the ’60s, Tacoma had a vibrant wood pulp/paper industry. We would encounter it on long family drives, and called it “the aroma of Tacoma.”
I haven’t been back to my beloved Pacific Northwest since ’74, and don’t know what Tacoma is like today. (Though I imagine Bellevue is like the town square in the second Back To The Future movie … all holograms and hoverboards.)
I spent part of my pilot training learning to fly out of the Valdosta Municipal airport. Several miles off the runway was the Clyattville Paper Mill. When the wind was blowing the right way, you could smell it. You could even smell it flying over it at several thousand feet.
I wonder if Valdosta still claims to be the Turpentine Capital of the World and do they still have a Miss Turpentine contest?
My mother lived in Hampton Roads, VA back in the late ’50s. If the wind was from one direction, you got the paper mill. If it was blowing from the other direction you got the fish cannery. You always hoped for a still day.
Another candidate for unexpected unpleasant odors are commercial continuous coffee roasters. We lived one place where we had to drive past a big Maxwell House roaster and it really smelled bad. Still not as bad as a paper mill but definitely not a nice odor.
Albany, Oregon has a double hit driving down I-5. The paper mill and a funky metal and alloy producing plant called Wah Chang (really stinky). I had to go work on a computer there once and had to put special covers on my shoes incase I stepped in something that would eat through my shoes. Salem, Oregon had a papermill just outside of the downtown that would spew out a toxic smoke that blanketed the whole downtown, like a fog. Plant is gone now.
Teenage years in Missoula, MT with the papermills in full “bloom” Always knew the direction the wind was coming from. Pig farms in the midwest do cause concern for “who did that?” when we drove past them when the kids were little. A world full of smells – my son says that the funeral pyre smoke isn’t anything you wish to be downwind of. js
Aah, 1950s memories of family trips to northern Wisconsin. And Green Bay is known as the “Toilet Paper Capital of the World.” It sure smelled that way.
I was born and raised on the Androscoggin River, In the 60s and 70s listed as the 10th most polluted river in the US ,Paper mills from Berlin NH down to Jay Me. Here in Lewiston the smells were aslo from fabric mills , Shoe shops and a old school Gas patch , Quit the smell on a hot day with high runoff the river !
There was a rendering plant where I grew up in South Burlington Vermont. It was only bad a few days a year but I still remember it 65 years later. They donated use of the beach on Lake Champlain they owned for the neighborhood to use.
A community in Maine had a paper mill and a burning dump near the river and the main route through town. Nobody from outside the community wanted to stop there. Homes near the river painted with white lead oxide turned a dingy grey as the sulfur fumes turned the lead oxide to black lead sulfide.
I went to a high school that was just south of a paper mill and fortunately in a state with a predominantly southern wind, but we always knew when the wind shifted to a northerly flow.
I experienced first hand what it’s like to live near a paper mill, and the dread of having the wind blow the smoke your way … Not fun … My sympathies to anyone in this predicament.
I worked two summers at St Regis paper mill in Cantonment Florida and there were definitely times when it was stinky as all get out. They used a lot of sulfates and if they don’t recover them properly — which they didn’t a lot of time — it was rouuuugh. It also would eat a car or a truck up in about 2 years at most.
There are a lot of pulp mills in Sweden. There is a poem from the early days of that industrialization which goes ‘Sulfite smells like poop, but opposite, Sulfate smells like food, but opposite’ (Sulfit luktar skit fast tvärtom, Sulfat luktar mat fast tvärtom) mirroring the two pulp-making processes.
Lucy Rudy 7 days ago
They can really stink up the area.
think it through 7 days ago
Drive by a fish cannery.
WhatsTheJoke 7 days ago
Paper mill in Perry, Florida. ’Nuff said. (PEEUUUU!!)
Enter.Name.Here 7 days ago
I didn’t know we started destroying the environment that long ago.
Last Rose Of Summer Premium Member 7 days ago
Having lived downwind from the Paper Mill in Washougal WA, I can relate.
blunebottle 7 days ago
Woodfibre, BC. Yes, that’s the correct spelling.
rob.home 7 days ago
Why are paper mills smelly? Didn’t know that.
sirlaughsalot23 7 days ago
That is the smell of the odor coming from the digester, and you know what the digestion process smells like when you have had certain foods to eat.
tammiammi 7 days ago
My husband worked at one & we’d take a big whiff & say the smell of a paycheck….
jmohr134 7 days ago
Cavemen got paper mills!
The Orange Mailman 7 days ago
Anachronism much?
Gent 7 days ago
Paper mill in B.C.? Me was never knews.
rondm66 7 days ago
Paper mills in BC era?
wirepunchr 7 days ago
That ain’t nothing compared to a rendering plant.
Count Olaf Premium Member 7 days ago
Chillicothe, Ohio. “That ain’t stink you smell, boy, that’s money.”
GentlemanBill 7 days ago
Must be near Chillicothe Ohio.
rhodesmk Premium Member 7 days ago
It’s a thing, for sure. I had an uncle that lived in Lufkin, TX for a few years, where there was a paper mill. Loved visiting my uncle, hated the smell the whole time I was there!
TMMILLER Premium Member 7 days ago
Not sure what was worse, the paper mill of the sewer treatment plant across the river in Camas. Paper mill is now closed, so the treatment plant is all you get and it gets pretty ripe.
Randy Walters 7 days ago
When I grew up in Bellevue, Washington in the ’60s, Tacoma had a vibrant wood pulp/paper industry. We would encounter it on long family drives, and called it “the aroma of Tacoma.”
I haven’t been back to my beloved Pacific Northwest since ’74, and don’t know what Tacoma is like today. (Though I imagine Bellevue is like the town square in the second Back To The Future movie … all holograms and hoverboards.)
dflak 7 days ago
I spent part of my pilot training learning to fly out of the Valdosta Municipal airport. Several miles off the runway was the Clyattville Paper Mill. When the wind was blowing the right way, you could smell it. You could even smell it flying over it at several thousand feet.
I wonder if Valdosta still claims to be the Turpentine Capital of the World and do they still have a Miss Turpentine contest?
TexTech 7 days ago
My mother lived in Hampton Roads, VA back in the late ’50s. If the wind was from one direction, you got the paper mill. If it was blowing from the other direction you got the fish cannery. You always hoped for a still day.
Another candidate for unexpected unpleasant odors are commercial continuous coffee roasters. We lived one place where we had to drive past a big Maxwell House roaster and it really smelled bad. Still not as bad as a paper mill but definitely not a nice odor.
Alberta Oil Premium Member 7 days ago
Paper mills of the past were pretty smelly.
ChessPirate 7 days ago
And, on the other side of the coin, we often drove by a big Bread Bakery. Oh, that Wonderful smell! ☺
Daltongang Premium Member 7 days ago
Oh come now, everyone knows that “He who smelt it, dealt it.”
boydjb47 7 days ago
Chillicothe Ohio
DatsunMan 7 days ago
Albany, Oregon has a double hit driving down I-5. The paper mill and a funky metal and alloy producing plant called Wah Chang (really stinky). I had to go work on a computer there once and had to put special covers on my shoes incase I stepped in something that would eat through my shoes. Salem, Oregon had a papermill just outside of the downtown that would spew out a toxic smoke that blanketed the whole downtown, like a fog. Plant is gone now.
Saddenedby Premium Member 7 days ago
Teenage years in Missoula, MT with the papermills in full “bloom” Always knew the direction the wind was coming from. Pig farms in the midwest do cause concern for “who did that?” when we drove past them when the kids were little. A world full of smells – my son says that the funeral pyre smoke isn’t anything you wish to be downwind of. js
xyzwriter48 7 days ago
when we lived in Arkansas, there was a paper mill about 20 miles from our house, and when the wind came from that direction, it was BAAD.
wildlandwaters 7 days ago
oh man… I remember as a kid driving through New Hampshire and going by a paper mill… WHOO WEE!
zeexenon 7 days ago
Aah, 1950s memories of family trips to northern Wisconsin. And Green Bay is known as the “Toilet Paper Capital of the World.” It sure smelled that way.
scote1379 Premium Member 7 days ago
I was born and raised on the Androscoggin River, In the 60s and 70s listed as the 10th most polluted river in the US ,Paper mills from Berlin NH down to Jay Me. Here in Lewiston the smells were aslo from fabric mills , Shoe shops and a old school Gas patch , Quit the smell on a hot day with high runoff the river !
jconnors3954 7 days ago
Without paper there would never have been comics!
mistercatworks 7 days ago
I lived near a paper mill in Mississippi, when I was a kid. That was a number one sign that you were poor. Those sulfides do stink.
John Lamb Premium Member 7 days ago
Walk downwind from a yeast plant. Even in winter the creek doesn’t freeze. FYI alcohol is the best those things smell like.
cactusbob333 7 days ago
It’s just what you expect a terdel to do. Blame his farts on a paper mill.
rockyridge1977 7 days ago
…….or drink………or eat and drink??
Drgnslr Premium Member 7 days ago
There was a rendering plant where I grew up in South Burlington Vermont. It was only bad a few days a year but I still remember it 65 years later. They donated use of the beach on Lake Champlain they owned for the neighborhood to use.
Billy Yank 7 days ago
A community in Maine had a paper mill and a burning dump near the river and the main route through town. Nobody from outside the community wanted to stop there. Homes near the river painted with white lead oxide turned a dingy grey as the sulfur fumes turned the lead oxide to black lead sulfide.
Smeagol 7 days ago
5 freeway going to Sacramento from LA.
William Stoneham Premium Member 7 days ago
I went to a high school that was just south of a paper mill and fortunately in a state with a predominantly southern wind, but we always knew when the wind shifted to a northerly flow.
falcon_370f 6 days ago
In Lewiston, ID I thought it was the mill, but it turns out that it was the compost plant next door.
LONNYMARQUEZ 6 days ago
they only had rock, of rock paper scissors
KenDHoward1 6 days ago
I experienced first hand what it’s like to live near a paper mill, and the dread of having the wind blow the smoke your way … Not fun … My sympathies to anyone in this predicament.
Strawberry King 6 days ago
Where’s Captain Planet when you need him?
David Huie Green LoveJoyAndPeace 6 days ago
I worked two summers at St Regis paper mill in Cantonment Florida and there were definitely times when it was stinky as all get out. They used a lot of sulfates and if they don’t recover them properly — which they didn’t a lot of time — it was rouuuugh. It also would eat a car or a truck up in about 2 years at most.
bunwarpgazoo Premium Member 6 days ago
There are a lot of pulp mills in Sweden. There is a poem from the early days of that industrialization which goes ‘Sulfite smells like poop, but opposite, Sulfate smells like food, but opposite’ (Sulfit luktar skit fast tvärtom, Sulfat luktar mat fast tvärtom) mirroring the two pulp-making processes.