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Abstract
The American Pulp and Paper Industry's move to production in the Southeastern United States constituted one of the most important restructurings of the American landscape in the post-Civil War era. In place of governmental regulation and conservation, private industry took hold of these duties and acquired what would eventually become the world's biggest tree plantation. In 1935, Union Bag and Paper (later Union-Camp) Corporation began negotiations with the City of Savannah, Georgia, to construct the world's largest paper mill along the banks of the Savannah River. This became a perfect marriage for the South's ailing forestlandsprimarily its pinesand Union Bag's decreasing profits in the face of Canadian competition and a previous failure to adhere to chemical innovations in the paper-making process. The combined efforts of foresters, scientists, and community boosters turned the South into the modern era's tree farm, starting first with Savannah and its hinterlands. But in the 1960s and 1970s, escalating water pollution brought the paper industry to bear fault in the eyes of a major environmental movement. This dissertation examines all of these processes as well as reveals the psychological strategies of the modern paper industry to corral both southerners and their trees.