ONTARIO (From news reports) -- The last reel of newsprint produced at Thunder Bay Pulp and Paper on Feb. 19 became a photo op moment and a time of reflection for its manager of paper operations.

In a LinkedIn post, Shane Moscrip eulogized the closing of an era that reaches back to the 1920s in the northwestern Ontario city's industrial history.

"For more than a century, this mill has converted wood, water, steam, and skill into paper. Generations have stood on five paper machine floors, listening to the cadence of the wire, the draw through the presses, the steady breath of the dryers. They measured their days by tonnage, quality, and uptime," Moscrip wrote.

"These paper machines have run through wars, recessions, ownership changes, grade transitions, rebuilds, and countless shutdowns and startups. It has been more than equipment; it has been the industrial heartbeat of this town."

In reaching an inevitable conclusion, the company decided in January to permanently cease production of newsprint, largely due to a North American-wide decline in the product. The landmark mill, which dominates Thunder Bay's skyline, will continue to operate as a single-line softwood kraft mill.

The plant is owned by Connecticut-based Atlas Holdings, which purchased the operation from Resolute Forest Products in 2023.

One hundred and fifty jobs are impacted. The company said it will work with local unions and government to ensure affected employees will be able to access "transition supports" and retraining programs.

In his post, Moscrip dutifully described the last run in the papermaking process that began the previous night when the final batch of wood chips were fed into the pulp mill facility's thermomechanical pulp (TMP) plant.

This process steams chips and mechanically grinds them between rotating steel discs, known as refiners, to produce wood pulp.

"On the floor, the crew did what they have always done, ran the machine with discipline and pride. They watched the sheet stabilize, managed edge breaks, and kept the draws true. In the control room, trends were steady. On the reel, tension was balanced.

"The last jumbo reel will be built to diameter slowly and precisely, layer upon layer, a record of everything this workforce knows about fibre, process control, and craft."

The final reel was "turned out" at 1:46 p.m. Thursday afternoon.

"This final reel is not only paper. It is accumulated expertise -- operators, electricians, millwrights, instrument techs, lab technicians, supervisors -- people who understood that performance is built on routine done well. It reflects a culture shaped over 100 years: safety first, quality without compromise, production through teamwork. The machine may be coming to rest, but the capability it developed in this workforce does not disappear," said Moscrip in the post.

"A sombre crew got in front of that paper today. It will be a moment to recognize the machine that carried a town for generations and the people who kept it running, shift after shift, year after year. One final image in front of the reel, not as an ending alone, but as a testament to a century of papermaking done right."

Papermaking was once an economic pillar of the city, beginning in 1919 with Great Lakes Paper on the Fort William site with operations commencing by 1924. By 1930, the company was running the most modern mill in the world with the largest paper machine.

The complex has changed ownership in the last 50 years with its acquisition by Canadian Pacific Forest Products, later spun off as Avenor, before Bowater stepped in in 1998 and later merged with Abitibi-Consolidated in 2007 to create AbitibiBowater. The Montreal-based company changed its name to Resolute Forest Products in 2011.