Chip Stubbs can still remember the lunch he packed on his last day at the Bucksport paper mill a decade ago, when it closed down for good: homemade pepperoni pizza. He can also remember the lunch basket he carried that pizza in.
Now, Stubbs’ basket and one that was carried by his father have joined more than a dozen other mill workers’ lunch containers on the ceiling of a brick building at the former factory. They’re one of the central displays in a new museum that honors the history of the site.
The Bucksport Paper Mill Museum, which will have a soft opening starting on Labor Day, is housed in the former gatehouse at the mill’s main entrance.
It contains many other emblems and memorabilia from the mill’s decades of operation under several corporate owners, including the first and last pieces of paper it ever made, a panoramic aerial photo of the site when it was fully intact and the original sign when it was part of Maine Seaboard Paper Co.
“We’re hoping the younger generation will come in and learn how paper was made. People will come in and reminisce about their days in the mill,” said Stubbs, a Bucksport native who is now helping to start the museum after working more than 40 years in the mill. “These lunch pails hanging on the ceiling are a tribute to the people who worked here. The paper mill was an asset to this community for years. It’s now gone, and we don’t want it forgotten.”
The current displays take up 700 square feet, which is roughly a third of the building, but the museum will expand over time into the rest of the space, according to Stubbs. To get the building ready, volunteers pressure washed the whole interior, but they’ve tried to keep it as industrial-looking as possible.
To fill out the additional space, Stubbs said the museum has a storage unit’s worth of other artifacts, including newspaper clippings, books and unworn jackets from when St. Regis owned the mill.
The museum will continue to accept donations of other memorabilia, including more lunch pails, according to Stubbs. While the museum is not officially open, he welcomes visitors to stop by when volunteers are at work there. A full opening is expected next year.
The soft opening is free and will be held Monday, Sept. 2, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., as well as on Tuesday, Sept. 3, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The opening day will start with a procession that starts across the road, to commemorate mill workers who made the same walk during a shift change. A bagpiper will play “Papermakers Lament, a Scottish Air,” and the procession will be followed by poetry, brief remarks and refreshments.