DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna let it breathe a little. Somewhere in Angelina County, there's a story about pine trees and stubbornness and an industry that got turned on its ear — and it starts with a problem nobody thought could be solved. Southern pine.
Beautiful tree. Tough wood. And for a long, long time, the paper industry had written it off.
Too much resin in that wood, they said. You can't make newsprint out of that. Go find your pulp somewhere else.
So the South kept looking elsewhere — kept looking foreign — for its paper supply. That's just how it was. Until it wasn't.
Southland Paper Mills, Incorporated, was incorporated in 1938 with a different idea. They weren't interested in foreign supplies. They wanted local paper, grown right here in the southern pines.
And in 1940, they began operations — becoming the first plant to turn southern pine into newsprint. Let that sit a moment. The first.
Ever. The resin that everybody said made southern pine useless for newsprint? Southland figured it out.
Their mills made possible what the industry had rejected as flat-out impossible. Now, they weren't done. In 1942, additional facilities were built to supply bleached pulp — expanding what was already a pioneer operation into something even bigger.
And the success of this complex didn't just change one company or one county. It revolutionized the paper industry across the entire southern United States, and gave Texas an avenue for aiding the world in the supply of vital paper. The world, mind you.
All because somebody in Angelina County looked at a resin-heavy pine tree and said — I think everybody else is wrong about this.
What the marker says
First plant to turn southern pines into newsprint. Mill here revolutionized paper industry in the southern United States. Seeking local paper rather than foreign supplies, Southland was incorporated in 1938 and began operations, 1940. Its mills made possible use of southern pine (earlier rejected for newsprint because of its high resin content). In 1942, additional facilities were built to supply bleached pulp. Success of this pioneer complex gave Texas an avenue for aiding world in supply of vital paper. (1968)