West Virginia is famous for her coal mining history and her Civil War history…but do you know about her paper-making history? That’s right, in the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, a pulp mill cranked out thousands of tons of wood pulp a day, all of which got turned into paper. And you can still visit what remains of the mill along a short, easy trail near Harpers Ferry.
A little way down the path that leads from the River Access Parking Lot on Shenandoah Street to Lower Town at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, you'll stumble across an old stone ruin. At first, it might not look like much...
The ruin is what's left of a pulp mill that operated along the Shenandoah River one hundred years ago. The Pulp Factory was a 10-turbine mill that, at its height, could produce 15 tons of wood pulp (to be made into paper) daily!
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While that number is certainly impressive, it's hard to fully appreciate the size of these walls until you stand among them.
And don't forget to watch for wildlife: turtles can frequently be spotted in the water or along the bank, as can frogs and toads.
Also, if you've made it this far, we definitely recommend continuing on past other turn-of-the-century ruins into Harpers Ferry's Lower Town and splurging on ice cream from The Coffee Mill or A La Mode Cafe, two side-by-side treat shops with window service on the corner of Potomac Street and Hog Alley.
To map out how to get to the pulp mill ruins along the old Shenandoah Canal, visit the location on Google Maps here. There are many other interesting historic sites in the Harpers Ferry area that you’ll want to make time to see while you’re in the area, and you can learn more about some of those with the help of this article.
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