Join our gatehouse renovation crew

Ed and Leo taking a well-deserved break.

July 8, 2024

We are looking for volunteers to help us transform the former paper mill gatehouse building into the Bucksport Paper Mill Museum. 

Weekly work sessions are scheduled every Tuesday morning this summer from 8am to noon. Drop by and see what we have been up to and lend a hand!

Can’t make it on Tuesday mornings? Contact our Restoration Foreman Chip Stubbs at chip9516@gmail.com to schedule another time to help out.

Chip and crew have been hard at work cleaning the interior and exterior of the building and installing new windows. Our goal is to create a space where the history of the paper mill can be preserved and where the stories of the papermakers can be shared. Will you help us turn this dream into a reality?

Keep reading for some background on Chip and the efforts to create the Bucksport Paper Mill Museum.

Leo showing off his St. Regis blue bar.

A view toward the entrance where the guard’s desk was.

Bucksport Paper Mill Museum Update: Work towards the Bucksport Paper Mill Museum Proceeds

By Wesley C. Stubbs

Some credentials

I’m a Founding Donor to the Mill Museum, Wesley C. Stubbs. As a member of the Working Group, I have been named foreman of the gatehouse restoration effort, working with Larry Wahl to coordinate the clean up of the property. I was the Machine Tender that shut down “The Big Dog” #5 Paper Machine which I wrote about in a story for Pat Ranzoni’s book Still Mill.

My thoughts about the Bucksport Paper Mill Museum

Our goal is to build a museum and a reminder of Bucksport Paper and its Papermakers by displaying artifacts and memories in the Gatehouse. This history of the mill is important to the town and surrounding towns where many workers and support people lived. We have artifacts from the mill and the people who worked in the mill, including my lunch basket as it came out of the mill my last day I carried it, minus my favorite fork; my father’s lunch basket; and my Black Sunday hat which reflects the day we lost our double time Sunday pay.

Bucksport Paper Mill Museum. The name works. I like what it covers.

Bucksport Paper is a tribute to everyone who worked in the mill, including suppliers and support people. 

Bucksport Paper Mill Museum or Mill Museum represents the Mill, Bucksport, surrounding communities, and anyone who feels any attachment.

Bucksport Paper had great support that helped it be the best. Bucksport Paper Mill Museum has the Bucksport Historical Society as support.

Ed helps with cleaning up the interior of the building.

Leo lends a hand with the cleanup too.

The origins of the mill museum

This has been close to a ten year project so far, from the day the mill closing was announced in 2014 and people began saving material connected to the mill, beginning with stories for Still Mill which was published in 2017. At the BookStacks launch, Pat presented a copy to Gary Bagley for the Bucksport Historical Society, announcing all royalties would be donated to them for the purpose of collecting and exhibiting mill history. Later that day, thanks to Gene Sanborn, long-time mill veteran, we had a float in the Bay Festival Parade, featuring former mill workers as honored riders. In 2018, Yankee Magazine featured our story in its November issue, “The Town that Refused to Die.”

We are grateful to the Wardwell family of WeStore for the donation of a temporary storage unit in Orland where items rescued from the demolition have been protected thanks to Ray Seamans who donated the truckload of artifacts to the Still Mill Project at the end of May 2019.

Soon after, the Still Mill Project presented the Seamans collection at WeStore to Gary Bagley, Vice President, and others from the Bucksport Historical Society. The historical society voted to accept the paper mill museum under their nonprofit umbrella. During the transfer, Gary was inspired to propose we look into the availability of the gatehouse, the last building left of the mill. 

In 2019, we were invited to partner with Bucksport Wednesday on Main and other local and state civic groups for a special event at the Alamo Theatre for “our show of remembrance and respect for the 5th anniversary of our mill’s closing.” Julia Gray curated our first exhibit of artifacts and Pat Ranzoni presented a program of readings and music from Still Mill involving mill-connected people. Keepsake printed programs funded by a grant from the SpiritWords Fund of the University of Maine Foundation documented the event and community participation for posterity. 

Chip lowers an old heater.

Ed watches Chip lower the heater.

Obtaining and restoring the gatehouse

I made a commitment to the Bucksport Paper Mill Museum officially in December 2021. On October 8, 2022 we took a walking tour of the old gatehouse and I was asked to take on leadership of the gatehouse restoration as foreman.

While waiting for the subsequent sale of the gatehouse through several entities, our Working Group conducted a very successful Founders Fund campaign, from Labor Day 2021 to Labor Day 2022, raising money to secure and insure the gatehouse. 

We got the zoning changed in the spring of 2023, involving updated surveys, the town’s Code Enforcement Officer, lawyers, Planning Board, and Town Council. We spent the summer and fall waiting for the deed to be released while continuing to build our Working Group, grow the collection, write grant applications and raise funds.

We were finally presented with the deed November 9, 2023 from Bucksport attorney, Bill Tymoczko, who donated his time and steadfast guidance through the process. We will always be grateful for his help. Thank you JERA Americas, the latest owner of the Bucksport Generation power plant, who along with selling us the gatehouse for $1 have pledged ongoing assistance.

Thanks to Lynn and Tom Moriarity, and Bobby Wardwell and crew, a rescued pulp grinding stone has been placed in front of the museum to become the base of the sign that Larry Wahl and I are working on

We are looking for volunteers to help with restoration, ideas, fundraising or just funds! Please contact me at chip9516@gmail.com or 207-299-5291. You can also drop by one of our Tuesday morning work sessions at the gatehouse building, held throughout this summer from 8am to noon.

—Wesley C. Stubbs