Camp Manufacturing Company

This industrial complex evolved from a sawmill that operated here prior to the Civil War. In 1887, three brothers, Paul D. Camp, James L. Camp, and Robert J. Camp, founded Camp Manufacturing Company, later Union Camp Corporation. The lumbering enterprise pioneered a program to purchase land as well as timber rights, allowing extensive reforestation efforts. The facility is a major producer of paper, paperboard, lumber, and particleboard. The Blackwater River and the railroads have traditionally provided transportation for raw materials and manufactured products for the western Virginia Tidewater area.