It’s worth looking at this 1991 economic development map of Mason County, as our community debates whether to welcome new corporate citizens.
Here’s what our industrial base looked like then — and what became of it:
- Inland Container → still here, now International Paper
- January & Wood → out of business
- Browning Manufacturing (EPT) → left the area
- Carnation Company → left the area
- Carnation – Tin Can Division → left the area
- Parker Tobacco → out of business
- Wald Manufacturing → now Midwest Equipment Manufacturing
- Vickers Welco → may now be Welco Technologies
- TRW (two facilities) → both gone; buildings now used by Precision Pulley Inc. and Good360
- TeechnoTrim → left the area
- Cryrystal Tissue → left the area
- STOBER Drives → arrived in 1991 (has grown from 3 employees in 2 rented rooms, to a company-owned campus with 2 buildings and significantly more than 100 employees)
- Jockey International → left the area
- Clover Leaf Dairy → out of business
And two economic engines that didn’t even make the map because they seemed permanent in 1991:
- Burley Tobacco → almost entirely gone
- Dairy → entirely gone
Thirty-six years of change. Most of what anchored our economy in 1991 is gone — and what replaced it came from saying yes to new ideas, not no.
These changes make one thing clear: to support tomorrow’s cultural and public services, we must embrace change and use it to build our future now.
The “No Data Centers” crowd isn’t being straight with you. They try to block change with regulations meant to kill new development, then call for moratoriums to chase a past that isn’t coming back.
The 1991 map doesn’t lie. Most of those businesses are gone.
TThe question is straightforward: Should the JPC shape the future through a map amendment or choose denial as our plan moving forward?
