Grays Harbor Pulp & Paper Co. baseball team pose at Olympic Staduim — circa 1934 — #410_1
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Photograph Copyright Anderson & Middleton Company
United States — Washington (State) — Hoquiam
7th St. Theater
The Grays Harbor Pulp & Paper plant was opened in 1929. In 1937 three Olympic Peninsula mills (Port Angeles, Shelton, and Grays Harbor) joined together to form Rayonier, Inc. but the paper from Grays Harbor continued to be sold under the Hammermill name. The pulp and paper operations were spun off into separate operations in 1959, and a few years later Hammermill bought back into the paper mill in a joint venture with ITT Rayonier. International Paper bought Hammermill in 1986, but the mill was put up for sale in 1992. When a buyer could not be found, the mill was closed in October 1992, throwing 650 area residents out of work. In December of 1993, a group of local investors restarted the paper mill portion of the plant as Grays Harbor Paper, L.P. producing fine papers from purchased bleached kraft wood pulp.
Thanks to Terri Middleton who notes: “Olympic Stadium was funded by the Work Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression. The stadium was first named for its location, 28th and Cherry Athletic Park. A contest was held to give it a permanent name and during halftime of the first Thanksgiving Day Game between Aberdeen and Hoquiam high schools in 1938 the winner was announced. Stanley Erickson won a 3 year pass to all events at the new Hoquiam Olympic Stadium. Other names suggested were Cherry Bowl (for the street), Hoquiam Happy Hollow, Fish Bowl, Mud Bowl, New Deal Park, Rain Bowl, Clam Bowl. The stadium was built primarily to host baseball and several teams called it home over the years, the last team being the Grays Harbor Gulls of the Western League in the 1990’s. Olympic Stadium is home to the Hoquiam High School Grizzlies and every fall hosts the logger’s show that ends the Loggers Playday festival. One of the only all wood stadiums left in the country it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 22, 2006.”
