They’ve been likened to rocket ships or Minions. But the six rusty, oblong tanks that loom over Bellingham’s waterfront are neither space-age relics nor monuments to an animated movie franchise.
Situated next to the Portal Container Village, the 56-foot-tall tanks stand as ready-made art meant to enhance the waterfront’s industrial aesthetic.
Starting in the 1930s, the tanks served as wood digesters at Puget Sound Pulp and Timber, Port of Bellingham Public Affairs Administrator Mike Hogan said.
“Logs from throughout the Pacific Northwest were brought to the mill, debarked, chopped into wood chips, and fed into the top of the digester tanks,” Hogan said.
The tanks — as many as nine at one point — were essentially giant pressure cookers. In each batch, 120 tons of chips were treated in a high-pressure acid bath over eight hours, yielding pulp that was converted into paper products.
Georgia-Pacific purchased the mill in 1963 and continued operations until shutting it down in 2001. The brick building housing the digesters was demolished in 2015.
The waterfront’s iconic Acid Ball also was part of the pulp-making process. It stood next to the digester tanks until its move to Waypoint Park in 2018.
WTD is published online Mondays and in print Fridays. Have a suggestion for a “What’s the Deal With?” inquiry? Email us at newstips@cascadiadaily.com.
