.png)
Early County mourns Georgia-Pacific Cedar Springs mill closure: It’s going to hurt everybody
- Susanne Reynolds
- Aug 1
- 7 min read
Published in The Albany Herald on July 31, 2025.
By Lucille Lannigan
CEDAR SPRINGS — As sure as the return of Georgia’s gnats in late April, billowing plumes of steam have risen over the treetops of the Georgia-Pacific plant at Cedar Springs since the 1960s.
The steam poured from the stacks of the Georgia-Pacific Cedar Springs Paper Mill, which at its peak, could produce 1 million tons of cardboard product annually. But a mixture of a declining paper industry, costly repairs – and President Trump’s steep tariffs on the U.S.’s key paper buyers, as some speculate – is forcing the mill to shutter its operations. Georgia-Pacific announced the closure in May, giving 535 workers a 60-day notice to plan their futures past Friday, when most positions were to be terminated.
Most of the mill’s employees worked their last shifts in the late weeks of July. Some employees will stay on to maintain the equipment and shut down more complex parts of the mill.
Tracy Kirkland, a financial advocate for Five-Star Credit Union, a credit union that was formed in a closet at the Cedar Springs Mill and has since expanded across state lines, called the closure heart-breaking.
“Most of my all of my life, I’ve seen steam coming out of the stacks, and I didn’t think I’d ever see it that the steam wasn’t coming out,” Kirkland said. “I don’t think some people realize the direct impact on the economy and area counties. It’s going to hurt everybody.”
An economic impact study produced by David Bridges, a consultant and former president of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, revealed economic devastation for Early County, with rippling effects to counties in Georgia, Florida and Alabama. The study’s projected revenue losses to Early County, both direct and indirect from the mill’s closure, is about $6.5 million in tax revenue and $8 to $17 million in wages.
Hank Jester, the Chairman of the Early County Board of Commissioners, said the county is scrambling to figure out how to replace the 14% of its budget that came from the mill.
“We always worried about this, but to say we saw it coming: Never,” Jester said.
Beyond the financial impact, the mill was a community fixture in Early County. Its closure leaves a bitter taste in a community where nearly everyone has a connection to those steam stacks.
“Many generations have been raised on this paper mill,” Kirkland said. “It’s going to devastate families.”
Steam, sweat and stories: How a paper mill raised generations of Early County area families
The paper mill changed the makeup of the tri-state area when it opened its doors in 1963 and has maintained its prominence in the region since.
Billy Ray Butler, an 88-year-old paper mill retiree, began working there just one month after it opened its doors. He traveled about 15 miles on a mostly orange, dirt road to get to work.
“It was the best place I ever worked,” he said.
Don Harper, started working at the mill in April of 1967, just a week before the No. 2 paper machine would produce its first roll. He earned $2.25 an hour and he said he felt rich.
“If somebody asked you where you worked, you were proud to say you worked at the paper mill,” Harper said.
Butler and Harper are a part of a large group of paper mill retirees who eat breakfast together on the last Friday morning of each month. This tradition began in the 90s and has carried on until the present day. About 20 of them got together at Jo’s Family Diner, in Donalsonville on July 25. They passed around sympathy and birthday cards to sign. They prayed for those being impacted by the paper mill’s closure.
William Cleveland sat among the other retirees as they shared stories. He began working at the mill in 1981, when he was just 22 years old. He said the staff were family. They cooked meals together, hosted Easter Egg hunts and threw celebrations for retirements. If they lost a co-worker, the flag in front of the mill was placed at half-mast.
Cleveland worked long hours, alternating night shifts and day shifts. He carried the sulfurous smell of the paper pulp home with him.
“Back when my daughter was younger, I didn’t get to go to a lot of things,” he said. “But that company down there got me to where I am today.”
Cleveland lives just a few miles down the road from Georgia-Pacific. He’s watched the once steady stream of trucks carrying large logs to the mill slowly dwindle. He said the mill’s closure will affect more than just paper mill people. It’s going to hit the timber industry, chipping companies and more businesses that were fueled by the mill’s demand.
Darius Moss, another retired paper mill worker of 42 years, has had to watch family members struggle to find jobs that allow them to remain living in the area. Nothing pays as much as Georgia-Pacific did.
Moss started working at the mill at just 18 years old. He was a paper-maker, working his way up to the specialized role of “back tender.” He said the mill took care of his family. When his daughter traveled to London in high school, the mill gave her a scholarship.
“I don’t know how to say how I feel about it closing,” Moss said. “I feel like I’m let down. I feel like part of my family has died.”
He said he worries how the closure will impact the future sustainability of his community – of southwest Georgia.
“It’s going to hurt the economy here in Donalsonville because it’s the main gateway,” Moss said. “Guys with families might have to move away. It’s going to hurt the restaurants, the grocery stores and the churches.”
Moving forward: Early County faces future without largest employer
Leaders within Early County and Blakely have been hard at work since the closure announcement in May, helping displaced workers and strategizing budgets as they prepare for the loss of the mill.
Susanne Reynolds, the director of the Early County Development Authority, said Georgia-Pacific’s public relations team and WorkSource Georgia, a statewide work force initiative, have been hands-on in helping workers find jobs and discuss retirement, health care and unemployment insurance.
“We want to try to keep them here in our region, so we’re trying to align them with positions in Early County and southwest Georgia,” Reynolds said. “It’s definitely helped some of our existing businesses and industries get quality employees.”
Blakely Mayor Travis Wimbush said the city hosted job fairs for mill employees to connect with employers like Procter & Gamble in Albany. He said while Georgia-Pacific wasn’t in Blakely, the mill had a significant economic impact there.
“We’re just bracing, taking conservative steps with the finances that we do have and trying to just prepare for this upcoming budget for the new fiscal year,” he said.
As Wimbush navigates the mill’s closure as an elected official, he’s struggling to make time to navigate it as a former employee. He worked as a crane operator in the mill’s woodyard for the last 12 years. His last day was July 15.
“I was at the mill just as much or more than I was at home,” he said. “It was very rare that the mill shut down for anything so with the time we spent together over the years … we ate together, we prayed together, we worked together, we cried together.”
Now, Wimbush is searching for work that lets him continue to raise his family in Blakely and serve as the city’s mayor. But he hasn’t found the right opportunity yet.
“It’s caused a lot of anxiety,” he said. “Sixty days is not a lot of time to adjust. As a leader, I’ve tried to show up and be the strength for everyone else. I’ve personally put myself on the back burner.”
Wimbush said most employees were offered a severance package based on their years of service. They had to work up until late July in order to receive it.
“I haven’t received it yet … it’s caused a financial strain of tapping into savings,” he said. “Even when I find something, the likelihood of me finding something that’s comparable to what I made there is slim to none in this region.”
Reynolds said in her nearly three years as development director, there had been concerns and rumors about the mill closing. Red flags were raised for workers when the mill began idling its No. 2 paper machine and other pieces of equipment were left unrepaired. Still, Reynolds’ role was vacant for almost a decade before she took over, and she said no official strategic plan had been developed to prepare for the mill’s potential closure.
Early County isn’t alone in southwest Georgia in its reliance on one industry. Southwest Georgians can point to the shuttering of the Tyson Chicken Plant in Dawson, or Cooper Tire and Rubber in Albany, both of which triggered significant job loss and dwindling of local businesses. So Reynolds encourages communities to develop a strategic plan for their local economies.
“It’s about diversifying so that this community never finds itself in this situation again, where it depends so much on one industry,” she said.
Wimbush said southwest Georgia as a whole needs to work together to attract more industry and business to the area.
“We have to be intentional as a region to make sure we’re landing some of the great industrial trade work here,” he said. “Early County may not be able to do it by itself, but region 10, we can do this. We have rivers. We have rail. We have access to goods.”
Reynolds said Early County will start tapping into its other assets, like the lower Chattahoochee River, the Kolomoki Mounds State Park and large industrial properties waiting to be activated. Blakely is in ongoing efforts to revitalize its downtown and has recently seen new businesses and a successful monthly farmers market.
“Come spend your money in Early County because we definitely need that local sales tax,” Reynolds said. “Support our local small businesses because they’re still here, and we want to see them survive as well. Come spend money in communities that are about to face some hard times.”
Published in The Albany Herald on July 31, 2025.
Lucille Lannigan began working for The Albany Herald as a Report for America corps member in July 2023. At The Herald, she focuses on underreported issues impacting southwest Georgian communities that have been economically hard hit in the last decade, highlighting problems and solutions. She’s a Floridian and graduated from the University of Florida’s journalism college in 2023, where she wrote and served as metro editor for the student-run newspaper, The Independent Florida Alligator. Her work has been recognized by the Hearst Journalism Awards, the Online News Association and the Society of Environmental Journalists.
Phone: 305-780-9842
