Our partners at the Transylvania County Library have contributed a trove of company newspapers that we are excited to make available on DigitalNC. The Ecusta Paper Mill operated in Brevard, North Carolina from 1939 to 2002, specializing in cigarette paper and cellophane. The paper mill was a major economic force in the region, employing thousands of Transylvania County residents. From 1949 to 1987, the plant was owned and operated by Olin Industries. During this period, the plant published a newspaper covering events, programs, and people at the Ecusta Paper Mill. We have digitized exactly 99 issues of the newspaper, known as both The Olin News and The Olin Profile, dating from 1967 to 1985. The Olin News covers 1967-1979, while The Olin Profile covers 1980-1985. Visitors to the site will find this newspaper to be a rich resource for researching the history of the Ecusta Paper Mill and the people who worked there.

The 2002 closure of the mill sent shockwaves through the community, where it had become an institution over the course of six decades. Brevard has since rebounded by leaning into tourism centered on its natural resources and beautiful mountain landscapes. Today the former site of the Ecusta Paper Mill is home to Ecusta Brewing Company and an in-progress 19-mile greenway that will eventually connect Brevard, Penrose, Etowah, Horse Shoe, the Town of Laurel Park, and the City of Hendersonville. It is also a Superfund redevelopment site, with work focusing on depolluting the Davidson River and reclaiming the area for recreational use.

The Transylvania County Library has contributed over one thousand yearbooks, city directories, photographs, and more, as well as seven newspaper titles. View all of their digitized materials on DigitalNC at their contributor page here, and visit their website here to learn more.

Thanks to our partners at the Watauga County Public Library, DigitalNC is proud to announce that brand new issues of the Blowing Rocket are now available online for the very first time! The new issues will bring DigitalNC’s collection of Blowing Rockets to an 89 issues, spanning from 1933 to 1950. Many of these issues have been preserved on microfilm, while others have been in the North Carolina Collection.

The Blowing Rocket covered local, state, and national new stories and served the greater Watauga County area in North Carolina for over three decades. While the paper received their namesake from Blowing Rock, other cities that received the paper included Boone, Valle Crucis, and Foscoe. Interestingly, the establishment of the publication precedes the space-race that captured the imagination and obsession of Americans in the last half of the twentieth century. Were the founders of The Blowing Rocket trendsetters, psychics, or did they just love puns? Read these issues and find out for yourself!

You can find the new issues of The Blowing Rocket online now on DigitalNC here. Interested in more materials from Watauga County? You can find our amazing partners at Watauga County Public Library online at their partner page on DigitalNC here, or at their website online here. Interested in more amusing paper names? You can find Ocracoke Island’s “Mullet Wrapper” online at NC Digital here, or a single issue of “Beans” online here.

Thanks to our amazing partners at the New Hanover County Public Library, DigitalNC is proud to announce that a brand new collection of The Wilmington Morning Star are now available online! These brand new issues cover the entirety of a single year, from sunrise of New Years Day to sunset of New Years Eve, 1923. These issues will join over twenty thousand historic issues of The Wilmington Morning Star already online on DigitalNC, which spans from 1867 to 1947.

The Wilmington Morning Star was a daily newspaper that served New Hanover County for over a century, reporting local and national news to coastal North Carolina. Each issue covers topics of national concern, features advertisements from businesses across the east coast, and reports on the daily occurrences of coastal Carolina life. This batch offers a unique opportunity to read the daily experience of a Carolinian from exactly a century ago. Interested in what The Wilmington Morning Star was reporting on a hundred and one years before your birthday? This batch has you covered! Curious about how twentieth century Tar Heels observed Groundhog’s Day, Arbor Day, or President’s Day? This batch has an issue on each of those days! A search of the author’s “birthday issue” (October 29!) featured this amazing story about a skunk army, possibly one of the coolest articles in the entire collection (in her unbiased opinion).

You can find each of these 363 issues online now at DigitalNC here. Interested in reading more of this historic newspaper? Find DigitalNC’s complete collection of The Wilmington Morning Star online here. Thanks again to our amazing partners at the New Hanover County Public Library for making these issues available. You can find their partner page at DigitalNC online here, or discover their website online here.