Paper towns: how Otsego and Plainwell made America's pages
For a century the mills of Otsego and Plainwell made paper for the nation; the towns have spent the years since turning that heritage into new riverfronts.
The stretch of the Kalamazoo River through Otsego and Plainwell was once one of the hardest-working waterways in the Midwest. From the late 1800s onward, paper mills lined the banks. Otsego alone supported several. The area’s mills turned out everything from book paper to specialty stock, and it shipped nationwide. Generations of families in Otsego, Plainwell, and the nearby townships built solid middle-class lives on mill wages. The towns’ handsome downtowns and old neighborhoods are the legacy of that long boom.
The mills wound down around the turn of this century, and the towns have been deliberate about what comes next. Plainwell turned its mill into a city hall. Otsego has reclaimed riverfront for parks and events. The river itself, long abused by industry, has seen years of restoration work. It’s now cleaner than it has been in living memory. The paper era explains why these towns feel substantial beyond their size. They were built to last by people who made things, and that bone structure is still here.