“One could fly over the area in a helicopter and see nothing but trees,” said Stephen Golden, a former president of The Times’s forest products group and a great-grandson of Mr. Ochs. “Most of the logging work was done in winters because the ground would be hard enough to support the heavy trucks and the freezing temperatures would sustain ice bridges across the river.”

Kapuskasing’s frigid winters attracted General Motors, which opened a cold weather testing center in 1973. Other employers include the local government and schools, the Detour Lake gold mine, and Sensenbrenner Hospital, which moved out of its original Tudor-style home in the 1980s. Johanne Théberge, one of the Vermettes’ two daughters, works at the hospital. Their son, Don, has worked at the mill for nearly as long as his father.

The old hospital has been transformed into affordable housing, under the name Drury Place. The community clubhouse now serves as Kapuskasing’s civic center. The Kap Inn, as it was fondly known, burned down in 2007 and was demolished the next year.

The population is now about 8,000. Tembec announced last month that it would be acquired by Rayonier Advanced Materials of Jacksonville, Fla. A news release noted Rayonier’s commitment to “continue all Tembec operations.”

One customer, however, will not be holding its breath.

The last shipment of newsprint bound for The Times left Kapuskasing 14 years ago.