A community in mourning: stunned employees reel from Canton mill closure

Cody Bledsoe is just 21 years old, but when he got hired on at the Canton paper mill in November, he thought he was set for life.

"I thought this was the job I was gonna settle down and retire from and now this," Bledsoe said Monday evening after learning of the impending mill closure. "It is very heartbreaking. I just can't imagine this is really happening."

The Canton paper mill, a mainstay of Haywood County's economy and fabric of life for nearly 120 years, will close by summer.

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Evergreen's paper mill is a monstrous operation, 200 acres in size, shimmering at night in a haze of lights and steam and smoke.

Devastating news was announced Monday evening to employees of the Canton paper mill: the mill will close by summer.

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