The beginning of a historical legacy began on January 1, 1910, saw the commencement of the great work which has been carried on almost night and day every day since, by an army of labourers and skilled workmen at times nearly one thousand strong: Pulp Mill, Powell River, Seventy-Five Miles North of Vancouver.

The Powell River Paper Company is described as undertaking one of the greatest pulp and paper propositions on the American continent, supported financially by the Brooks‑Scanlon Lumber Company and R. F. Nelson. The Mill, located at Powell River, seventy‑five miles north of Vancouver, is expected to be ready in July, with an estimated cost between two and two‑and‑a‑half million dollars. The site was chosen for its exceptional water power at Powell River Falls, where engineers are developing a controlled and dependable system to operate the Mill’s machinery.

Work on the Powell River project began on New Year’s Day, 1910, marking the start of a major industrial undertaking. The article highlights the sinking of the foundation for the penstock used in electrical power development and shows the early mill site at Powell River. Heavy excavation, concrete foundations, and modern machinery form the core of the construction effort, all tied to the Company’s plan for continuous and economical operation.

“The Management of the Company” introduces several individuals connected with the organization. It names Mr. J. M. McKay, Mr. J. A. Macdonald, Mr. J. A. McIntyre, Mr. J. A. McKinnon, Mr. W. A. Macdonald, and Mr. J. A. McLean,  each described as part of the Company’s management or operational leadership. Their roles are presented collectively as the group responsible for directing the Company’s affairs and ensuring its continued growth within British Columbia’s lumber industry.

The British Steamer Queen Alexander arrived at the Powell River Paper Company’s wharf on January 10, 1911. It finished discharging a shipment of 850 tons of machinery for the works of the Brooks-Scanlon Company.

Canada’s paper production figures will show a considerable increase when the big Powell River Paper Company at Powell River, British Columbia, commences operations in July, according to newspapers. The Company is owned by the Brooks-Scanlon lumber interests of Minneapolis. The specifics of the construction have exceeded $2,000,00 with the intention of doubling and possibly tripling the initial capacity of 100 tons a day. No expense was spared in building the Mill with reinforced concrete and the balance of bricks, where approximately 65,000 barrels of cement and 1,000,000 bricks were used.

With up-to-date pulp machines and electricity, all the paper equipment will be driven with no steam power whatever to be used for the purpose, with the exception that steam will be used for the paper and chemical process, so fourteen large boilers are being installed. The Electricity will be driving the turbines of the big stones to create the wood pulp; altogether, 18,000 horsepower will be used to do the job.

To drive the turbines, a large dam has been erected where the falls were, a half mile from shore; the water travels through the penstocks, then through some pipes of fourteen feet in diameter, to the turbines, a drop of 160 feet. To generate steam, oil will be used for the most part; several hundred thousand barrels have been purchased.

Over a thousand men will work in this Mill, and a new town has sprung up, which promises to become an important place in the near future, as it is well situated and will possess a feature which is always important where raw materials are abundant nearby.

The Willamette Company closed a deal with the Powell River Paper Company in late July of 1911 for ninety tons per day, which was a contract that the Powell River Paper Company guaranteed to move to double the size of their Mill.

The sailing vessel named Powell River No. 1, H. Stead, who was a boat builder in New Westminster, built a sailing vessel in 1911. She was a British-built vessel with the official number and name of 130701 – KN No.1 and was registered in Port 60 in Vancouver, BC.

She was 65 feet 8 tenths in length with a main breadth to the outside of 25 feet 8 tenths wide and a depth in the hold of 6 feet 8 tenths. With a square stern and built in the carvel design, she was a wood-scow with a total under tonnage of 104.55 tons.

Hezekiah Stead built her to haul, and on July 26, 1911, Mr. J.M. Bowell registered her. Used for only two years before she was sold to the Powell River Paper Co. of Vancouver on April 9, 1913. There is no record of her entering the official fleet of the Powell River Paper Company, and no mention that she existed at all.

That might be because nearly a month later, she was sold to the Kingcome Navigation Company on May 31, 1913. She was wrecked on November 5, 1919, and broken up; her entire existence lasted 8 years.

Reverend J.A. Dow, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, was called to serve in Powell River, BC, on November 4, 1911. The invitation is an attractive one, as there is a wide field of work and the situation is unique to all Protestant congregations. The people are set to work at once to build a fine new house for him and pay all the expenses of the transportation and household goods. Dr. Gunning and Mr. C.E. Fraser, who have been regularly appointed to the Sunday congregation in Rossland, regret his going; however, Mr. H.H. Johnstone, clerk of the session, hoped that Mr. and Mrs. Dow would make as many good friends in Powell River as they did in Rossland

An unfortunate hunting accident happened near Powell River, BC, where Mr. John J. McDonald was shot as he was mistaken for game by an unidentified member of another hunting party, and he died within minutes.

His body was taken to Vancouver on September 6 after being struck and killed by a stray bullet on September 3, 1911. He was a native of Berlin, NH, and instructions are being awaited from relatives in that town regarding the funeral.

In mid-September, the Powell River Pulp and Paper Company will hold their formal opening, probably upon the BC Premier’s return from the east, as it is hoped to have the Prime Minister and several of his colleagues honour the important event with their presence. The announcement was made that the Company is expected to be able to begin manufacturing paper on September 15, 1911.

Mr. M.J. Scanlon with the Brooks-Scanlon Company has approximately $200,000 to invest in various British Columbia industries, saying that of the thousands and more white men employed at their works at Powell River in the making of pulp and paper are receiving the highest wages paid anywhere in the world as of September 16, 1911 in their respective class of employment, unskilled labour obtaining from 10 to 30 percent more than at any other Pacific coast paper making centre.

The cost of living at Powell River, says Mr. Scanlon, is no higher than at Victoria or Vancouver, taking into account the fact that rent is lower and partly due to the Company providing first-class homes for its employees at a cost of 5 cents per day on the investment capital. As for the foodstuffs, generally the Company’s store sells at Victoria or Vancouver prices.

Due to the delays caused by the penstock burst, the Powell River Paper Company was about to complete its plant and announced on September 30, 1911, a new starting date in the next two or three weeks. At the initial start-up and testing of the equipment, two hundred and fifteen men will be employed, with the officials of the Company being Mr. D.F. Brooks, president; Mr. P.A. Brooks, secretary; and Mr. N.R. Lang as the general manager.

The Company has increased the total initial expenditure of the Mill to $3,500,00 and added two additional machines, making the capacity 200 tons a day. The Powell River Paper Company has been plagued with delays in starting and opening the plant and embarrassment of not completing orders, and now the opening is slated for sometime between November 16 and the first week of December, when suppliers, wholesalers and those whose orders have failed to be delivered on time will be relieved.

In November, the proud suppliers of the Powell River Paper Company started to use their efforts to help build the Mill in their advertisements. The John McDougall Caledonian Iron Works placed an ad in the Pulp and Paper magazine about their Worthington Pumps, where they built 15 of those pumps for the Powell River Paper Company. As well did the Waterous Engine Works of Brantford, Canada, where they proudly advertised that they had just completed six of the beaters, 2000 lbs in size, for the Powell River Paper Company of British Columbia.

When Mr. Henry R. Williar, a well-known local exporter of paper, returned from an extensive trip to British Columbia in which he visited the construction site of the Powell River Paper Company on June 26, 1911, he was favourably impressed with the 250-foot by 110-foot pulp mill. With the twelve grinders and seven wet machines, each 84 inches wide, it will take care of the screen stock, while the beating room with six beating engines had been installed.

On July 22, 1911, the Shevlin-Carpenter Lumber Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota, which owns 45,000 acres of timber near Campbell River on the east coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, recently sold 7813 acres near Grief Point to the Larson Lumber Company of Bellingham, Washington, USA, where a standard-gauge railway will be built to Haslam Lake. Mr. R. Wetmore, the representative of the vendors, has been in town for a couple of days to secure the 25,000,000 feet of timber in the sale.

An Indian woman is recovering from being stabbed in the Powell River General Hospital when she was saved at Campbell River during one of the largest liquor seizures on Vancouver Island by Constable Thomas O’Connor.

A Logger at Powell River expired on July 19, 1911, as a result of exposure to heat. Mr. “Spot” Ellwood, a logger employed at Nash’s camp near Powell Bay, died on Wednesday afternoon as a result of heat exposure. Ellwood had been sent out to work a short distance from the other men. Later, groaning was heard, and when the crew went to investigate, they found him collapsed.

He expired before help could arrive.

Dr. Andrew Henderson of the Powell Bay Hospital examined the body and determined that death was caused by heat exposure. Ellwood had been working at the camp for only three days. He was about 43 years old and weighed roughly 170 pounds.

Incorporated under the laws of the Dominion of Canada, the new and powerful corporation entered the timber and lumber business, composed of Julius H Bloedel, head of the Larson Lumber Company, J.W. Stewart of Vancouver, BC and P. Welch of Spokane, and its new company name, Bloedel, Stewart and Welch Limited, with $500,000 of capital, was formed.

Headquarters in Vancouver is going to be established, and a tract of 8000 acres of timberland located near Powell River has been bought from T. L. Shelvin of Minneapolis, Minnesota, as of July 29. 1911. Consisting mostly of fine fir and a small percentage of cedar, timber cruisers show there is approximately 325,000,000 feet of timber on the tract on an old saw mill lease entered in 1891. Presently, the timber from this tract will be marketed from its camps near Powell River in different British Columbia Cities.

The Powell River Paper Company, Limited, incorporated in October 1909 under the laws of the Province of British Columbia, entered the second decade of the twentieth century with ambitious industrial plans supported by substantial provincial concessions. In a letter dated February 16, 1910, the Company informed the Minister of Public Works that the Province had granted or sold to them approximately 135,000 acres of timber land, the water power and water rights on Powell River, and 3,000 acres of land on both sides of the river’s mouth.

These grants were conditional upon the Company developing the river’s water power, constructing a pulp and paper mill capable of producing not less than 100 tons per day, and expending not less than $500,000.00 on associated works. As a guarantee of good faith, the Company deposited $50,000.00 with the Provincial Government, subject to forfeiture if the conditions were not met by November 30 1911.

During the 1911–1912 fiscal year, the Department of Public Works submitted Supplementary Estimates to Parliament that included an item of $55,000.00 for “Powell River Harbour – To take over breakwater and complete same.” Of this amount, five‑twelfths, or $22,916.66, had already been voted and made available. The breakwater, designed to reach 800 feet from the high‑water mark when completed, was constructed under contract by the Company using plans prepared in the office of the District Engineer at New Westminster, BC. The contract rate was $1.60 per cubic yard, quarry measurement, and the total projected expenditure was approximately $40,363.60, a figure the District Engineer considered exceedingly reasonable.

In the Paper Trade Journal of 1911, announced in San Francisco on August 15, 1911, the Powell River Pulp and Paper Company is ready for business and that its products will shortly be making appearances in the local market to much interest to wholesalers. An unofficial announcement has settled speculations regarding probable distributors that the firm would be represented locally by the Willamette Pulp and Paper Company; it is understood that officials of this Company have secured the interests in the new concerns and that the output of the two will be handled through one of its sales forces.

By August 17, 1911, work completed on the breakwater amounted to $32,368.00, of which $25,880.00 had been paid. The Company retained the remaining balance as a guarantee for completion. The District Engineer reviewed the Company’s books and certified the expenditures as correct. The land on which the breakwater stood—part of District Lot 3091 and District Lot 450, in the New Westminster District—was to be conveyed to the Crown for $146.00, calculated at $100.00 per acre, a price also certified as fair and reasonable.

The coordinated efforts of the Powell River Paper Company, the Department of Public Works, the District Engineer at New Westminster, and the Committee of the Privy Council established harbour facilities, secured land titles, and prepared sites for public buildings. The breakwater, contracted at precise cubic‑yard rates, measured in detailed bearings, and evaluated through multiple government channels, stands as a foundational element in the transformation of Powell River from a remote coastal site into a major industrial centre of British Columbia.

In August 1911, a notice was sent to Millmen and loggers wanting to avoid much annoying delay and therefore expenses, if, when short of men, they would telephone or write the International Employment Bureau, 109 Cordova Street, West Vancouver. The Proprietors, Mr. J.H. Ogden and Mr. P.W. Pollock, are widely known as men of probity, and they can be depended on to do their very best for their customers. They are the official agents for the Powell River Paper Company and other large concerns.

Complaints came forward to the office of the Commissioner of Fisheries for the Powell River area. The complaints, filed in the 1911 Report of the Commissioner of Fisheries, mentioned that a previous visit and report had been received that pearls were being fished on the Holston, Clinch, and Powell rivers. The complaints were that the shells were being thrown into the river as without value, and after the initial report, the complaints were substantiated. Powell River was examined, and wherever it was examined, the bottom could be made up of numbers of piles of dead shells that evidently were thrown back in by pearl fishers. In the examination, about 60 percent of the shells were good muckets and 20 percent long niggerheads, while a considerable amount were three ridges.

Mr. Orville Deville wrote an article in the August edition of the British Columbia Magazine about his trip to Texada Island. Travel to Texada Island begins from the Yachting Club waters at Vancouver, passing Point Atkinson, Gower Point, and Gibsons Landing, then crossing toward Grief Point and Powell River before reaching Van Anda. The island is described as largely unknown to many British Columbians despite its proximity to Vancouver.

Mr. Deville notes Texada’s varied soils, clay loam, sandy loam, and black loam, and emphasizes its strong agricultural potential. Comparisons are made to Porcher Island, with Texada considered superior for farming. Early settlers cultivate land around Van Anda, Gillies Bay, and the Sumner extension, where new roads and trails open access to meadowlands, alder thickets, and wild‑rose country.

Mining and industry shape the island’s early development. The Powell River pulp mills and copper mining at Marble Bay are referenced as regional industrial anchors. Texada’s own mineral wealth includes iron samples said to rival those of Sweden, drawing interest from Canadian and American financiers. The Van Anda district and Shelter Point are highlighted as areas with level land, gentle inclines, and good prospects for settlement.

Beaver meadows and hay fields appear throughout the interior, though drainage is needed in places. Gillies Bay is praised for its scenery and trout fishing, and the island is noted for having no snakes. Its position—between Van Anda Bay and Vancouver Island—makes it attractive for future development. Settlers organize to address issues with timber licenses that restrict land use, appealing to the Minister of Lands for fair treatment. The British Columbia Government begins opening new roads and encouraging settlement, with expectations that Texada will grow steadily as transportation improves and land becomes more accessible.

On October 7, 1911, Mr. George E. McFall, with George Schmarje as his agent, intended to apply for permission to purchase lands commencing at a post planted on the east shore of Cranberry Lake, near the west boundary of HSM Co. Lot J, thence 40 chains east, 60 chains north, 40 chains west, thence along the Timber License Lot 30804 to Cranberry Lake to the point of commencement.

Mr. Martin Kelly and Mr. Alexander Murray applied for land through the Land Act and received District Lot 1855 on October 13, 1911, containing 52 acres. Described as Granite Island in the Strait of Georgia, later changed to Kelly Island, sitting off Nelson Island.

On October 14, 1911, the Indian Agent Mr. McDonald visited the Sliammon (Tla’amin) Day School, and the visit landed on a Saturday, so it was closed. The teacher was Mr. J.W. Brown, who informed me that the children had been making good progress. The register showed good attendance, with a rating of 9.44 for the September quarter, but during the June quarter it had been 21.97. The health of the children had been good for the year, and the building was in good repair. Mr Brown had since resigned his position as teacher, and it will be necessary to obtain another teacher.

The steamer Fulon has been fitted up for the pulp carrying trade, having secured the contract for carrying pulp from the Powell River plant to Seattle, making a round trip once a week. From Seattle, the pulp will be shipped to San Francisco.

The firm W.A. Wilkinson and Sons of Minneapolis, Minnesota, which was critical in assisting with the design of the Powell River Paper Company’s mill layout, began advertising that fact and used the Powell River Paper Company Limited of Powell River as a reference, as a design and planning company. If desired, installation was included with the purchase and erection of Lumber Manufacturing plants.

November 15, 1911, is the date announced by the Powell River Paper Company to be ready to commence the manufacturing of newsprint and manila, the initial output of which will be eighty tons per day. The machinery is being given a thorough testing under the steam-generated electricity, and some fine stock is being manufactured pending the turning on of the hydro power.

As the Mill was completed and the operations were taking place, Mr. M.J. Scanlon of the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber Company returned from a business and pleasure trip to Cuba and the Bahamas. Phil Brooks, of the Powell River Paper Company, Vancouver, who was an ardent and experienced sailor, made plans for the next season of grand cruising in the vicinity of Vancouver. He purchased a boat well known at Seattle, the Tramontana, probably the largest of her class on the Puget Sound; the craft is yawl-rigged and has a 40 hp auxiliary.

Announced on November 23, 1911, trials are now being made of the plant of the new and immense pulp and paper manufacturing plant at Powell River, which is to be opened next month.

The progress at the new Powell River Pulp and Paper Company on November 27, 1911, while not as rapid as might have been hoped, is expected to be in operation within a month. Due to unforeseen difficulties, Mr. R.N. Calkins says preliminary trials have already been carried out. With a 100-ton-a-day capacity and the opportunity to purchase right in the Province without the high-end freight cost, it makes it an affordable mill supplier to the west.

With 150 families now located at the plant, and a school with 50 children maintained with the settlement, the intention is to run the most modern machinery-installed paper plant at full capacity. Mr. Calkins and Mr. J. Scanlon were greatly pleased with the plant.

The great shipment of Pulp Mill Machinery by the Waterous Company was completed; the 65 cars of Pulp Machinery ordered by the Powell River Company were ordered through the firm’s British Columbia representative, Mr. H.B. Gilmore. The entire order, some delivered earlier in the year, consisted of sixteen boilers, 72 inches by 18 feet, pulp grinders, centrifugal pumps, screens, splitters, barkers, chippers and conveyors.

Powell River was the scene of a fatal accident when a stump struck a man, and he was instantly killed. The Inspector, Mr. W. E. Ditchburn, Inspector of Indian Agencies, returned yesterday from a ten‑day inspection of the Alert Bay agency. He reported a fatal accident at the Powell River ship factory on November 22, in which an employee named A. White lost his life. A big log was being hauled out of the water and caused a stump to fly up and strike the unfortunate man on the side of the head, killing him instantly. Another employee, Ole Rikhisen, standing nearby, narrowly escaped injury.

An inquest was conducted by the Indian agent at Alert Bay on Friday, resulting in a verdict of accidental death. No papers were found among Mr. White’s effects to establish where he came from, but some addresses were found. The Provincial Constable was making efforts to locate the deceased’s relatives.

The Western Paper Mills in Sapperton is slated to be opened with new machinery; the manager, Mr. Noble Heath, explains that the Company will manufacture box boards, building papers of all kinds, and heavy manila and fibre boards will be made at the Brunette River. Still, the Mill will not compete with the Powell River Paper Company, which can supply all the newspaper that the west can use for some time to come.

December 14, 1911, the Powell River Pulp and Paper Company of Powell River, BC, is having work on its big plant here rushed as fast as possible, and expects to have a portion of it in operation within a few weeks. As this work is being done, an order for new pulp and papermaking machinery has been placed for the expansion from the Baker and Shevlin Worm Knotters Company of Saratoga Springs, New York.

The CPR Steamer Otter rescued a trapper from the shores of Mountain Point in the Johnson Straits the Friday before December 22, 1911. The crew heard rifle shots from shore, and Chief Officer Gooch took to shore and brought back William Bertrand, who was a trapper. He had left Powell River the previous day in his sloop bound for Bella Bella, and his boat got upset and was in the water. He managed to swim to shore and made his way to the old Enterprise logging camp, where he built a fire and camped for the night. Mr. Bertrand is a native of Germany, is 22 years of age and has been in Canada for the last seven years.