Two of the mills can trace their roots to the West Virginia Paper Company (aka the West Virginia Pulp & Paper Company and later, Westvaco) that was established in 1888 by
William Luke on 50 acres (202,000 m2) of land along the
Potomac River in an area known as "West Piedmont" (now
Luke, Maryland). The mill in Luke remained a major economic factor in the area straddling the river into
Beryl and
Piedmont in
West Virginia, until it was closed in 2019. In 2005,
MeadWestvaco's Printing and Writing Paper business was sold to investment firm
Cerberus Capital Management for about $2.3 billion to form NewPage Corporation. NewPage originally constituted five pulp and paper manufacturing plants in Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, and Ohio. In April 2006, NewPage sold their carbonless operations located in Ohio for $84 million to global specialty papermaker
P. H. Glatfelter Company, based in
York, Pennsylvania. In 2007, NewPage Corporation purchased the North American assets of
Stora Enso (formerly
Consolidated Papers, Inc.) which included mills in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nova Scotia. On September 7, 2011, the NewPage Corporation filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization due to negative cash flow for more than a year. NewPage Corporation announced December 21, 2012, that it has successfully completed its financial restructuring and has officially emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection pursuant to its Modified Fourth Amended Chapter 11 Plan which was confirmed on December 14, 2012, by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in Wilmington. In early 2015, NewPage was acquired by the
Verso Corporation for $1.4 billion. ==References==