Pulp to Sawdust

A new maritime center in Port Townsend signals a possible future for the town if its pulp mill closes.

Like countless other small towns across the nation, Port Townsend half expects to wake up one morning and learn that its oldest and largest private employer is shutting its doors. But this changing community, perched on a narrow peninsula at the entrance to Puget Sound, has more than most to fall back on.

For 81 years, the huge Port Townsend Paper mill, with its array of stacks belching sulfuric fumes into the sky, has dominated the local landscape. The town may be best known for its elegant old Victorian homes, vibrant arts and dramatic setting, but for most of its history it has relied on its pungent corporate citizen to provide nearly 300 jobs worth some $27 million a year to the local economy.

But now Port Townsend Paper is struggling with rising costs and competition from mills in Asia. Critics, especially those living downwind, have challenged the company’s air pollution permits. The company has been in and out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and has changed hands several times, most recently to private owners who decline to discuss the firm’s economic health.

All of which leaves townspeople guessing about their economic future. Meanwhile, down at the other end of town, Port Townsend is about to get its self-styled $12.7-million economic stimulus—a handsome, 25,000-square-foot maritime center that promises to showcase Port Townsend’s newest industry. Financed with a mix of public and private funds, the Northwest Maritime Center occupies a prominent spot at the entrance to the landmark Point Hudson Marina. 

More than a century ago, Port Town-send dreamed of becoming the region’s seaport, where sailing ships would offload goods for shipment by rail across the continent. But steamships displaced sailing ships, and the railroad never made it to Port Townsend. The town went bust and settled for its pulp mill.

 Beginning in the late 1970s, a few young sailors and shipwrights rediscovered the town, bought up some of those old Victorians, and started building and repairing boats down at the marina. Today Port Townsend is a regional mecca for building and maintaining small boats—especially wooden boats.

Some 450 people make their living on and around the Port Townsend waterfront. Twenty-four businesses build boats, ranging from wooden kayaks to multi-million-dollar yachts. There are also 30 boat repair shops, eight riggers, four sailmakers, 14 marine surveyors, 13 marine supply stores and much more.

Jim Pivarnik, deputy director of the Port of Port Townsend, says the combined marine trades now match or exceed the mill’s economic impact.

Still, Port Townsend would be clobbered by the loss of PT Paper, cautions Scott Wilson, publisher of the local weekly newspaper, the Leader. “Without the mill, this town becomes another weekend getaway town, like Coupeville or La Conner.”

The maritime trades, combined with a growing tourist trade, simply can’t provide the year-round, family wages jobs provided by the mill, he says.

If PT Paper does close its doors, what will happen to its huge chunk of prime waterfront real estate? Some see a new flurry of high-end condos and seven-digit homes. Others see it as an ideal spot for a salty, year-round shipyard.

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