The first planning for this facility was conducted by Houston Oil Company and Scott Paper Company in 1951, according to The Texas Forest News. The plant would cost approximately $30,000,000. Time, Inc., replaced Scott Paper. The Texas Forest News identified the company name in 1953 as the East Texas Pulp and Paper Company. It completed its first cycle of operation on December 5, 1954. In June 1955, the mill employed 450 workers. This mill did not initially produce publications or papers. In 1958, according to The Texas Forest News, the company added a 120” cylinder board machine, increasing daily production 400 tons of paperboard and pulp.
Eastex, Inc., proposed a $33,000,000 expansion of its paper and pulp mill at Jasper. Included would be $2,000,000 in water purification equipment, which would reduce the amount of waste water dumped into the Neches River from 55,000,000 gallons daily to 28,000,000. The expansion would create 400 new jobs.
Eastex, Inc., at Jasper, was noted in the “List of Manufacturers Who Are Members of TFPMA, Spring 1968.”
Its parent company merged with Temple Industries, Inc., in 1975, to become Temple-Eastex, Inc.