350-Foot Paper Mill Smoke Stack Is Demolished

BUCKSPORT, Maine - A Maine man played a lament on his bagpipes as a smoke stack that symbolized a former paper mill came crashing down. Hundreds watched as the 350-foot stack at the former Verso Paper Mill tumbled down in a flash Tuesday at a site that will one day become home to a salmon farm and Maine Maritime center. Local residents hope the new development will offset the closing of the mill and loss of 570 jobs.
 
Friends at Fort Knox across the river even opened the park up so that members of the public could come in for free and get a better view of the demolition.
 
Former mill worker Walter Browning said it was a "sad feeling.'' Seventy-year-old Ernie Smith played a song called "Papermakers Lament'' on his pipes.