Great Northern Paper Company

Great Northern Paper Company began with construction of a mill in Millinocket, Maine, in 1899, followed by the acquisition of an existing mill at Madison, Maine, and the construction of a third mill in East Millinocket in 1906. The company's timberland holdings reached over 2 million acres in the 1940s; in addition it owned dams and hydroelectric stations including Dolby and Ripogenus dams, farms, a hotel, and several vessels. In 1970 the company merged with Nekoosa-Edwards Paper Co. to become Great Northern Nekoosa Corp. In 1989 it was taken over by Georgia-Pacific Corp.; shortly afterward Bowater Corp. of South Carolina purchased Great Northern's mills and timberland from Georgia-Pacific. In 1999, Inexcon bought Bowater's Maine holdings. Great Northern filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2002. Its mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket were purchased by Brascan Corp. in 2003 and the company was renamed Katahdin Paper Co.