Little Falls paper mill's history includes Crayola Crayons and a visit from Mr. Rogers

From making the paper for Crayola Crayons to getting a visit from Mr. Rogers, there's plenty of history behind a Little Falls, Minnesota, paper mill.
 
"When you drive by on the road, you really don't realize it's here. You see that smokestack behind me, but that's about it," said Mike Worcester, the executive director of the Morrison County Historical Society.  

Near the banks of the Mississippi River, you'll find fossils of the paper industry. Giant relics that once turned wood pulp into pages of different colors.

"I'm going to stand next to it. It's almost 6 feet tall. And this building was full of these," said Worcester.

Worcester says the massive grinding stones belonged to the Hennepin Paper Company. It opened its doors in 1890, and for more than a century, it was a Little Falls landmark.

"There are generations of people who are impacted by the mill's operation, both people who worked here and family members who worked here. Countless, countless kids who got free paper every year for school," said Wooster.

Before it closed in 1998, the paper company was one of the largest employers in central Minnesota.

Roman Witucki worked at the mill for 31 years and operated pretty much every machine, including one that ripped the bark off wood.

During its heyday, the mill made the paper that wrapped around Crayola Crayons.

"We made all the construction paper. The blues, the blacks, the greens. I think we made 52 different colors," said Witucki.

He also remembers the factory getting a visit from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.

"He came through and took a tour of the plant. He made a video of it and aired it on his program. I still have the video at home," said Witucki.

A couple of years after the mill closed, a fire destroyed much of the building, but its history lives on.

Nearly $3 million was spent to tear down and clean up the site. Then the city got the idea to turn all of it into a park with the ruins as the centerpiece.

The arches, which once supported heavy equipment, remain. So does a dryer with its gears still intact, and a staircase that leads to nowhere now, but once connected the factory.

Even as Mother Nature takes back what industry once made, visitors can still get close to a time that was.

"I often like to joke, if you close your eyes, you can hear it. And you can hear the machinery, hear the water rushing. And hear all the hustle and bustle and the people," said Wooster.

Supporters of the park are hoping to make it more accessible for bikers and kayakers in the future.

Mill Park and its ruins are located on Fifth Avenue in the Southwest part of Little Falls.