James Maclaren Industries Inc.

• 1864 Purchase by James Maclaren of the sawmill located on the west side of the Lièvre River, from the Baxter Bowman Estate.
• 1876 Maclaren receives the Award of Excellence at the Philadelphia World's Fair for the products displayed at the event.
• 1885 Opening of a new warehouse at Mont-Laurier.
• 1889 Founded by James Maclaren and James G. Ross, The North Pacific Lumber Company starts up a sawmill at Barnett, British Columbia.
• 1892 James Maclaren, founder of Maclaren, dies, leaving behind "The Estate of James Maclaren".
• 1893 Maclaren receives the Award of Excellence of the Chicago World's Fair for the products displayed at the event.
• 1894 Founding of the "Albert Maclaren Electric Light Company".
• 1895 Incorporation of "THE JAMES MACLAREN CO. LTD.", June 28th.
• 1900 First meeting of the Board of Directors of "THE JAMES MACLAREN CO. LTD.". James Maclaren's five sons, David, Alexander, John, James Barnet and Albert bought the estate, the sawmills, the properties and the woodland concessions.
• 1901 Purchase by the Company of the "Ross Bros." sawmill, located on the east side of the Lièvre River at Buckingham.
• 1901-02 Construction and start-up of a mechanical pulp mill with a daily production capacity of 60 tons.
• 1903 Purchase of the hydraulic rights owned by Sir Edward Andrew Stuart downstream from Buckingham.
• 1906 Opening of a new log piling depot, south of the Buckingham Roman Catholic Cemetery, along present Hwy 309, between Masson and Buckingham.
• 1907 Modernization of the sawmill located on the east side of the river in Buckingham.
• 1911 Purchase of the "Lièvre River Telephone Co.".
• 1912 Increase in the production of mechanical pulp to 90 tons per day,
• 1913 Shutdown of the Barnett sawmill in B. C.
• 1913 Purchase of the 100 sq. mi. Sharples woodland concessions along the Lièvre River.
• 1913 Construction of a retaining dyke and log slide to bypass High Falls on the Lièvre River.
• 1922 The sawmill on the west side of the river at Buckingham is demolished to make way for a new mill (Head Works and Pulpwood).
• 1928-30 Construction of a newsprint mill with a production capacity of 350 tons per day and a chemical pulp mill at Masson.
• 1928-30 Renovation and expansion of the mechanical pulp mill capable of producing 300 tons per day at Buckingham.
• 1928-30 The mechanical pulp was carried from Buckingham to the Masson plant via a pipeline located in a north-south axis between Georges Street and the river. The 4-foot logs used to make chemical pulp were floated down a log slide from Buckingham to Masson. Both systems spanned a distance of three miles.
• 1928-30 Construction of a dam and hydro-electric generating station at High Falls, on the Lièvre as well as the construction of a dam and hydro-electric generating station at Masson.
• 1941 Construction of the Mitchinamekus dam.
• 1954 Construction of the Kiamika dam.
• 1956-59 Construction of a mechanical pulp mill at Masson.
• 1957 Construction of a hydro-electric generating station at Dufferin Falls, on the Lièvre at Buckingham.
• 1959 Shutdown of the mechanical pulp mill at Buckingham.
• 1959 Construction of a debarking and slashing mill at Poupore, upstream from Buckingham, on the Lièvre.
• 1964 Purchase of the Kraft pulp mill and other installations from the Singer Company at Thurso.
• 1965 Purchase of "Canadian Hardwood Limited", "Buckingham Lumber Ltd." and "Quebec Hardwood Limited".
• 1968 Sale of the affiliate Company "Lièvre River Telephone Company" to Télébec .
• 1970 Purchase of the Allaire sawmill at Notre-Dame-du-Laus.
• 1974 Purchase of 50 % of Sogefor Ltd’s assets in Lac-des-Îles.
• 1979 Installation of solar heating panels at the Masson plant.
• 1980 Acquisition of the Maclaren Company by Noranda Inc.
• 1981 Modernization of the bisulfite plant at the Masson newsprint plant, allowing the recovery of 80 percent rather than 50 percent of fibbers, and a reduction of suspended solids in the water returned to the river.
• 1983 Modernization of $61 million at the Kraft pulp mill in Thurso, comprising of the installation of a new recovery boiler and a precipitator.
• 1985 Construction and installation of a new newsprint machine with a total capacity of production of 750 metric tons per day.
• 1988 Increase of production capacity at the Kraft pulp mill in Thurso: from 365 tons to 580 tons per day. Cost of the project: $175 million.
• 1988 Modernization of the corporate office of the Company at Masson.
• 1988 Announcement of the construction of a clarifier at a cost of $7 million at the newsprint mill.
• 1988 Announcement of a $27 million expansion project of the Masson newsprint plant to increase production from 180,000 to 209,000 metric tons par year.
• 1990 Purchase of Normick-Perron.
• 1990 Modernisation and expansion at the Kraft Pulp Mill in Thurso.
• 1991 Announcement of the start-up of a newsprint deinking plant at Cap-de-la-Madeleine, jointly with Cascades and Donohue.
• 1993 Introduction of recycled pulp in the newsprint manufacturing process at the Masson plant
• 1993 The Kraft pulp division celebrates its 35th anniversary with the theme "35 years of efficiency and improvement... and counting"
• 1993 Logging operations on the Lièvre River are abandoned and a new system for log conversion and storage is introduced at the newsprint mill at a cost of $ 3.8 million
• 1994 Announcement of a $70 million investment in water treatment plants at Maclaren plants both in Masson and Thurso.
• 1994 With the end of logging operations on the Lièvre River, the 64-year old log slide used to float the logs from Buckingham to the Masson plant is now obsolete and consequently dismantled.
• 1994 Investment of $44 million for the modernization of the wood yard at the Kraft pulp mill in Thurso resulting in a pulp of superior quality.
• 1994 The Normick-Perron group, until now under the Maclaren umbrella, will come under the authority of Norbord, another division of Noranda Forest.
• 1995 In conformity with its environmental policy and the optimization of its resources, Maclaren announces that 80 tons a day of solid waste from the Masson newsprint plant will be turned into compost.
• 1995 Maclaren celebrates its 100th anniversary of incorporation and adopts a new corporate symbol.
• 1997 Noranda Forest, which later became Nexfor surprised everybody by announcing the sale of its newsprint mills in Masson.
• 1998 Noranda Forest finally finds a buyer for it's Masson newsprint mill, Papier Mason Ltée
• 1999 Nexfor sell it’s Hydro-Electric operations to Great Lakes Hydro in Trust,the Maclaren Hydro Division becomes a subsidiary of Great Lakes Power.
• 2000 On the 7th of January, Nexfor, a Toronto firm, announces the sale of its Kraft Division in Thurso, thus becoming part of its Fraser Paper subsidiary.

Source: André Joyce http://maclaren.iquebec.com