The Lower Carroll Paper Mill was one of nearly a dozen small industries that once flourished on the Konkapot River as it passes through New Marlborough. George Sheldon and partners produced manila paper here from 1855 to 1872.

The mill was operated by water power. A dam about 300 yards upstream impounded water, releasing it as needed into a still visible head race, or earthen trench, about four feet deep. Channeled through the mill’s wheel pit, the section of the foundation closest to the river, it turned a water wheel. There were several wheels over the years, including a patented Risdon Water Wheel, which gained efficiency by capturing the water in metal cup-like blades. The water wheel was connected by pulleys and belts to power grinders that battered raw materials into mush and machines that formed paper, a sheet at a time. The paper was hung in a second-floor loft to dry.

In a technological upgrade, two years after a major fire in 1872, owner John Carroll, with his son, Theron, and partner James Goodwin, installed two massive Pagenstecher wood grinders to produce pulp fiber. This was barreled, sent by wagon to the Upper Carroll Mill and made into newsprint. The grinders were bolted to enormous stone pedestals (still standing inside the mill foundation) to absorb vibration that otherwise could have shaken the building to ruin.

Berkshire Paper Co., as the firm was known, suffered financial setbacks and in 1877 installed a Fourdrinier machine here, which made large rolls of newsprint from rye straw. The rolls were taken by wagon to the railroad depot in Ashley Falls for shipment to market. The owners built a boiler house and an 85-foot brick chimney (now in ruins on the site) for a more reliable source of power. The business went into bankruptcy in 1884 and closed for good in 1887.

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