Large-scale logging came to Washington County after the Civil War.
The entire state had been impoverished by the War, and all avenues
for producing income were explored. One virtually untapped resource
was the extensive swamp forests of the tidewater region. Up until
that time landowners had bypassed much of the swampland as too
difficult to subdue. The advent of logging by rail changed the way
the swamps were logged and opened the way for their exploitation.
There was a large national demand for wood products and a number of
entrepreneurs moved to take advantage of it. The Roper Lumber
Company established a large sawmill at Lee's Creek (now Roper) in
about 1885 and built a railroad south to log the swamps of
Washington and Beaufort Counties (American Lumberman, 1907; Hanlon,
1970). Smaller scale logging had been going on for sometime. The
Albemarle Land and Timber Company had obtained rights on 120,000
acres of land from the Josiah Collins estate in 1840, and had
operated out of Pantego until stopped by the Civil War. The Roper
Company came to dominate the region and at one time owned much of
the swampland in Washington County. The mill at Roper was known for
its Atlantic White Cedar lath, shingles, and other cedar products.
The mill also cut pine, cypress, and swamp hardwoods.
The history of forestry in Washington County reflects in miniature
the history of forestry in much of the South (Lilly, 1994). Forestry
is still an important part of the Washington County economy. North
Carolina Pulp Company came to the area in 1937, as part of a
national movement of paper companies to the south. The owner of the
mill, Kieckhefer-Eddy, merged with the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company
in 1957. The mill is located in Martin County, but immediately
adjacent to Plymouth. Weyerhaeuser is the largest private landowner
in Washington County, and the paper mill complex has remained a
dominant part of the Plymouth economy.
For many years, True Temper operated a "handle" factory in
Plymouth, and Georgia-Pacific operated a large sawmill. Williams
Lumber Company still operates a sawmill in Mackeys and a Japanese
lumber company (Yamato) has a cypress and Atlantic White Cedar
sawmill in Roper. Two companies in Plymouth manufacture logging mats
and other timber products. The history Washington County cannot be
told without telling the history of forestry as it has progressed
from exploitation to sustainability.