BERLIN, N.H. - As presidential candidates make the pilgrimage to New Hampshire's North Country, they pass a sign that says, "Berlin - The City That Trees Built." But just beyond the welcome sign is a hole in the heart of Berlin, a vast tract with only the remnants of a once-thriving pulp mill.
Demolition crews knocked down three of the mill's four smokestacks in September after carting away nearly everything, from the machines to the framework. The mill's closure in May 2006 left behind 250 unemployed workers and a region searching for a new identity.
The story of the mill's financial troubles and dwindling workforce was as familiar to presidential candidates as the snow that lay glistening yesterday across the Presidential Range of majestic mountains. Every four years, candidates drove up from Manchester, headed through the northern notches, and made a brief stop in Berlin to promise to fight for the workers and their way of life.
But the promises were impossible to keep, and the pulp mill that defined Berlin is gone. A paper mill in nearby Groveton will close Dec. 31. In stark contrast to the prosperity of southern New Hampshire, where the suburbs and exurbs seem to stretch endlessly, the North Country is reeling economically. Many residents, especially those whose jobs were connected to the paper industry, are searching for a new economic way of life - and thus are viewing this presidential campaign with a level of intensity that is hard to match in other parts of the state.
The population is small, the landscape vast and remote. Just 33,000 people reside in the stunningly beautiful northernmost Coos County, which accounts for one-fifth of the state's land area and just 2.5 percent of its residents. But North Country residents have a reputation for turning out in high numbers, perhaps enough to provide the margin of victory or defeat in a tight race. So candidates continue to make their way north, and the residents spill out their heartbreaking stories.
Tim Lapointe, 49, a Berlin resident who worked at the mill here for 22 years until it closed, recently told his children that he could no longer be counted on to pay their college bills. "I had a very good living," said Lapointe, whose father and grandfather worked at the mill before him. "I loved it." Now he is training for new work at a machine shop and wonders what the future holds for him here.
Another former mill worker, Richard King, attended a campaign event held by Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on Saturday and all but pleaded with the former Arkansas governor to come up with a plan that would provide him with health insurance. Now a property maintenance worker, he said that the only healthcare plan available to him would cost $500 per month.
"You fell off the high wire and you hit nothing but the ground," Huckabee said.
"That's right," King responded. "You find me a candidate that can help me out, and I'll vote for that candidate." He said afterward that he might support Huckabee or Democrat Bill Richardson.
Several candidates have opened offices in Berlin, and all of the major contenders except former Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee have been here, according to local officials. Democrat John Edwards, who rarely fails to remind voters that he is a son of a mill worker, has campaigned heavily on economic themes. He even uses a different set of campaign signs in the north, featuring a picture of mountains and a moose.
But Mayor Bob Danderson of Berlin, a Republican who backs former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, said his mostly Democratic city is tired of hearing promises from presidential candidates. Danderson said that the pulp and paper mills have been hard hit by competition from foreign markets where environmental and labor laws aren't as strict as those in the United States. He is hoping that the plight of Berlin will make an impact on presidential candidates in both parties and cause the country to rethink its trade policies. Danderson said many laid-off mill workers are taking low-paying jobs and can't afford to live here and raise a family. "If I didn't have my job working for the utility company, if I lost it tomorrow, I would be looking for a job somewhere else," the part-time mayor said in an interview.
While Danderson likes the attention the candidates bring to the North Country, he was skeptical that it would last. "There's always a lot of promises, but once they are in Washington it is a whole new ballgame," Danderson said. "It's all about the power and preserving it."
Times have been hard enough here that the residents took a step that some originally felt smacked of desperation. The city approved plans for a 1,200-bed federal prison, with construction just getting underway. City residents initially rejected the prison in a referendum, but switched course as the economy worsened and approved in a second vote it by a 2-to-1 margin, Danderson said. But he stressed that the prison is just one part of reviving the economy.
Berlin once defined its prosperity by the amount of acrid smoke belching from the mill, which struggled for years to remain competitive and stay out of bankruptcy. Now Berlin is trying to remake itself as an environmental and recreational haven. A park for all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles is underway. Instead of cutting down trees for pulp, the residents now talk of preserving the forests for generations of tourists to come.
At a convenience store across the Androscoggin River from the vacant mill site, manager Rachel Masters said she hoped the property would be redeveloped with a casino or some other business. Some hope that the one remaining smokestack, out of the four original ones, will be used for a proposed biomass power plant. She was doubtful that a presidential candidate could have much impact.
The people of the North Country have proved resilient. Generations of families have remained in Berlin through good times and bad, in great part due to a love of the landscape. That explains why an increasing number of people are buying into the vision of the North Woods without paper mills. But it may take years before such a vision transforms Berlin and the rest of the North Country, and that could be too late for some of the teenagers in the crowd listening to Huckabee.
"If I had a job here, I would stay, definitely," said Blake Smith, 16, who said he loved the mountains and the seasons in the North Country. But he said he is thinking that he will have to move to Alaska to replicate the kind of life he had hoped for in northern New Hampshire.
"Jobs around here can definitely support an individual but supporting a family is much more difficult," said Eli Beasujour, 15, who said his father works at a nearby mill that is still open. Beasujour, meanwhile, said he has his future planned out. "I plan on joining the military," he said.
Michael Kranish can be reached at kranish@globe.com.
