Editing Camas, Washington (section)

==History==
Officially incorporated on June 18, 1906, the city is named after the [[camas lily]], a plant with an onion-like bulb prized by Native Americans. A paper mill was first established in the city in 1883 with the support of [[Henry Pittock]], a wealthy entrepreneur from [[England]] who had settled in [[Portland, Oregon]], where he published ''[[The Oregonian]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historylink.org/File/9290|work=[[HistoryLink]]|title=Camas -- Thumbnail History|author=Caldbick, John|date=February 8, 2010|access-date=July 8, 2017}}</ref> At the west end of downtown Camas is the large [[Georgia-Pacific]] paper mill from which the high school teams get their name, "the Papermakers".

By 1971, there had been four attempts to merge Camas and Washougal that were denied by voters.<ref>{{cite news |date=January 10, 1971 |title=Clark County's serenity shattered by urbanization |page=O2 |work=The Oregonian}}</ref>

===Mill history===
Pittock's LaCamas Colony bought 2,600 acres in 1883, forming the Columbia River Paper Company the following year to begin production in 1885, before merging with [[Oregon City, Oregon|Oregon City]]'s Crown Paper Company to form Crown Columbia Paper in 1905. After converting from steam to electricity in 1913, Crown merged with Willamette Paper in 1914 and then with Zellerbach Paper in 1928. [[Crown Zellerbach]] became the largest paper manufacturer on the west coast and the Camas mill the largest of its type in the world.

During [[World War II]], the Camas mill temporarily manufactured parts and components for US Naval vessels produced at the nearby [[Kaiser Shipyards]]. In 1950, the Camas mill was the first factory to produce folded paper napkins.<ref name="Columbian 2018 Timeline">{{cite news | title=Timeline of Paper Mill's Presence in Camas | date=February 1, 2018 | work=The Columbian | location=Vancouver, Washington | pages=A2}}</ref> "Crown Z" was the area's biggest employer in 1971, with 2,643 of approximately 3,700 [[Clark County, Washington|Clark County]] paper mill workers. In 1986, Crown Zellerbach was absorbed by [[James River Corporation]]; after further mergers with the [[Fort Howard Paper Company]] in 1997 and  [[Georgia-Pacific]] in 2000,  [[Koch Industries]] acquired Georgia-Pacific and the Camas mill in 2005. In 2018, Koch announced plans to [[Layoff|lay off]] approximately 200–300 workers, shutting down all equipment related to communications paper, fine paper conversion and pulping operations.<ref name="Columbian 2018 Job Cuts">{{cite news | title=May Day: Paper Cuts. Layoffs at Georgia-Pacific mill in Camas to start May 1, affect 280 to 300 workers. | date=February 1, 2018 | work=The Columbian | author=Brynelson, Troy | location=Vancouver, Washington | pages=A1–A2}}</ref>

Historically, the commercial base of the city was almost entirely the paper mill; In recent years, however, the diversity of industries in and near Camas has been enhanced considerably by the influx of several high-tech, white-collar companies. These include [[Hewlett-Packard]], [[Linear Technology]], [[WaferTech]] and [[UL (safety organization)|Underwriters Laboratories]].