Blue Heron Paper Company
Blue Heron Paper Company
Blue Heron Paper Company was a recycled-paper mill located at Willamette Falls in Oregon City, Oregon, on the southeast bank of the Willamette River. It operated from 2000 to 2011 and produced a range of recycled paper products, including newsprint and paper bags. Facing strong competition from cheap imports, especially from China, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009 and closed in 2011 due to rising paper costs and a lack of investors.
In 2019, the land was purchased for $15.25 million by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. The tribes plan to develop a cultural and community center, and four other tribes with ancestral ties to the area also have connections to the land.
The Willamette Falls area has a long history of Indigenous communities and industrial activity around the falls. After years of mills and development, cleanup and redevelopment efforts followed the mill’s closure. In 2000, a lawsuit alleged that the mill’s warm wastewater harmed salmon in the Willamette River. In the years after, concerns about metals from aging infrastructure led to cleanup work, including a filtration system to reduce copper and zinc runoff.
Local governments formed the Willamette Falls Legacy Project to plan redevelopment, including a riverwalk and about 1,480 permanent jobs. By 2021, a redevelopment partnership had formed among the Grand Ronde, Willamette Falls Legacy Project, and the Willamette Falls Trust, but the Grand Ronde later withdrew from the partnership in 2022.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 08:15 (CET).