Rolof Carl Otto Jürgensen technical drawings for wood distillation plant

In the 1890s, Oregon City was a regional manufacturing center, with flouring mills, iron works, an ice plant, brick yards, sash and door factories, the Portland General Electric power station, and navigation locks established at Willamette Falls. By 1894, paper mills were harnessing power generated by the falls to process pulp, using both mechanical and chemical (sulfite) methods. In 1908, the newly incorporated Hawley Pulp and Paper Company began operating in the converted Portland Flouring Mills on the Oregon City side of Willamette Falls. The Hawley operation purchased thousands of acres of old growth timber in Oregon's Coast Range for an abundant source of wood to transform into pulp and into a variety of papers, including tissue, manila, kraft, and newspaper. The Hawley Pulp and Paper Company operated until 1948; after its closure, paper mills continued operating at the site until 2011.

Sources: “W. P. Hawley,” in "History of the Columbia River Valley, From The Dalles to the Sea," by Fred Lockley (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1928; accessed via Internet Archive, July 22, 2026), https://archive.org/details/bwb_S0-EFZ-855_2/mode/2up; Hawley Pulp and Paper Company records, Mss 1736, Oregon Historical Society Research Library; “The Beginning of Blue Heron: Mr. Hawley’s Mill,” by James Nicita, Milwaukie Review, February 5, 2014 (accessed July 22, 2026), https://milwaukiereview.com/2014/02/05/the-beginning-of-blue-heron-mr-hawleys-mill/; "The Oregonian’s Handbook of the Pacific Northwest," by The Oregonian Publishing Co. (Portland, Oregon: 1894) pages 157-165; "Utilization of By-Products," Astoria Evening Budget, March 21, 1908, page 7; "Will Utilize All Sawmill Waste," The Oregon Daily Journal, October 4, 1907, page 6.

Rolof Carl Otto Jürgensen (1854-circa 1940) was associated with the Technisches Bureau für die Chemische Industrie in the Žižkov neighborhood of Prague, then a major city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Jürgensen was a chemical engineer who held a German patent for distilling pure acetic acid in 1902, and a U.S. patent for carbonizing wood in 1907. By 1938, he had business operations in Frankfurt, Prague, and Budapest. Jürgensen designed industrial equipment that distilled waste wood from sawmills into usable chemical byproducts such as wood alcohol (methanol), tar, and turpentine. In 1907, the engineering firm of Hegardt and Brown, based in Portland, Oregon, secured regional rights to Jürgensen's distillation process, and adapted the designs for local use.

Sources: "Verzeichnis der Nachkommen des Kaufmanns Otto Friedrich Ahlmann und seiner Ehefrau Magdalene, geb. Lorenzen," by Johannes Ahlmann (Carlshütte bei Rendsburg, 1938, accessed online July 22, 2026), https://slaegtsbibliotek.dk/2025/947273.pdf; "Society of Chemical Industry Annual Meeting New York September, 1904," Clowes Family Collection, 1842-1998, Collection M1028, Box 1, Folder 7, Indiana Historical Society (accessed July 22, 2026), https://images.indianahistory.org/digital/collection/dc058/id/692/rec/1; information provided by Advocates for Willamette Falls Heritage, 2026; "Utilization of By-Products," Astoria Evening Budget, March 21, 1908, page 7.