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Woodfibre (B.C.) Series
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Miscellaneous photographs

The series consists of miscellaneous photographs created and acquired by Rayonier Canada at the Woodfibre town and mill between 1928 and 1980. The photographs include black and white and colour prints, including Polaroids; black and white and colour negatives and colour slides. The photographs consist of views of Woodfibre town and include general and aerial views as well as interior shots of the grocery store and bowling alley, construction of the swimming pool and other miscellanoues views. The series also includes photographs of the Woodfibre mill, both interior and exterior shots showing many aspects of the mill operation. A notebook indexes many of the mill shots. Some of these prints have accompanying negatives which have been removed for cold storage. The majority of negatives are 35 mm rolls of film identified as rolls 1-29 and prints from these rolls may be seen in the related series MS-3047, albums 5 and 6.

Predecessor companies, photographs

The series consists of photographs which depict forest industry operations of the companies which were predecessors of Western Forest Products Ltd, dating back to the first decade of the 20th century. Most prevalent are photographs of the activities of the Alaska Pine group of companies in the 1940s and 1950s and Rayonier Canada (B.C.) Limited in the 1960s, companies that were active at Woodfibre, Port Alice, and numerous other locations. Other predecessors to these companies are also represented, including Whalen Pulp and Paper Mills Ltd. and British Columbia Pulp and Paper Company Ltd.

Other companies represented include: Empire Pulp and Paper Mills Ltd. at Swanson Bay; Canadian Puget Sound Lumber and Timber Company Limited at Jordan River; Western Forest Industries Ltd. at Honeymoon Bay; Alaska Pine Company Limited at New Westminster; and Universal Lumber and Box Company Limited at Vancouver.

The photographs were originally part of accession MS-1996, however at the time of their accession they were separated from the textual material. Consequently, some contextual information has been lost.

Woodfibre pulp mill records

Records consist of They consist of financial records, namely ledgers, 1931-1951; annual reports, 1950-1960; a continuous set of authorizations for expenditure, 1920-1956; daily mill reports and tests of pulp, 1921-1935; Resident engineer's reports, 1964-1971; and various other reports. The large number of technical reports make this group of records interesting to those wishing to study the technical evolution of pulp mills.

In 1911, the British Columbia Sulphite Fibre Co. constructed a pulp mill at Woodfibre, B.C. The plant commenced operation in 1912. In 1917, ownership passed to Whalen Pulp and Paper Co., and in 1925 to British Columbia Pulp and Paper Company. Alaska Pine and Cellulose bought the mill in 1950, and, in 1958, it was taken over by Rayonier Canada. A consortium of three companies, namely British Columbia Forest Products, Whonnock Industries, and Doman Industries bought the mill in 1980, and it became known as the Squamish Mill. In 1983, the Squamish mill, together with the mill at Port Alice, was acquired by Western Pulp Limited Partnership.

Photographs associated with this grouping of records were transferred to Visual Records accession 198407-002; plans of the Woodfibre plant, townsite and community infrastructure, were transferred to the Map Accession M856003).