| A CN local crosses Hwy. MM as it prepares to switch the Shawano Paper Mill (div. of Little Rapids Corp.) via former C&NW rails at West Shawano, Town of Richmond, Shawano Co., WI on 10 Nov. '18. Founded as the Wolf River Paper & Fiber Co. on 7 Feb. 1894, the name was changed to Shawano Paper Mills ca. Nov. ‘49. The name changed to Little Rapids Corp.-Shawano Mill in ‘93, but it is still commonly referred to as Shawano Paper Mill. The area around the mill, which includes some former company houses, used to be referred to as West Shawano. That name still appears on some property records. The train is running on an approximately 2-mile scrap of the former C&NW mainline which once ran 83 miles from Green Bay to Wausau (this is the only active remnant outside of those two cities). That former main line is now the Mountain-Bay State Trail. It is an awesome bicycle ride, but I (obviously) would prefer to see trains running on it. The fence at right surrounds the paper mill's water treatment facility, which was built upon the former site of the Shawano Brick Yard (a.k.a. Larson Brick Yard). The brick yard, which had its own narrow gauge railway, produced fine white or cream colored brick from 1891 until 1946. The paper mill purchased the property at some point after the brick yard closed and eventually demolished the entire facility. The paper mill's historic office building was constructed in 1901 of brick from that yard. |