CANTON, N.C. (WLOS) — After a year of ongoing demolition, the Canton paper mill is slowly revealing pieces of its rich history and the memories held within its walls, including a unique, giant sphere.
"It reminds me of the 'Incredibles' movie," said Luke Williams, director of engineering at Two Banks Development. "That's the first thing my brain went to was the first Incredibles movie with that ball that attacked them."
This unique structure is a discovery comparable to what is seen in the movies, leaving crews in awe.
"Our general manager sent us an email with himself standing beside it. He is six-four; he's not a tiny man, so whenever you get a picture of this man beside this ball, and he looks like an ant," said Kimberly Ferguson, office manager for Two Banks Development.
The structure dates back to 1936, according to old documents Williams found.
"If you could encase that in concrete and stand it up on 10-foot stands, you could walk underneath it and only see just a little bit of it, and so we never knew it was a round ball; we just thought it was a cylindrical tank," Williams said.
When first found, crews accidentally tore through a portion of the ball.
"That was an attempt by one of the excavators to try and remove it. I think it weighs about 40 tons," Williams said.
Nonetheless, crews tried their best to remove the 30-foot-tall riveted steel sphere. In looking through the old documents, Williams says evidence shows that the sphere could have been made at the mill itself.
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The sphere's complicated history reveals its purpose as an acid ball, acting as a storage unit for alum, a liquid used in paper processing.
"It was used in the chemical cooking of woodchips, and this was the storage of that chemical, and so it was under pressure, so it was contained," Williams said.
Since the discovery, Williams says he believes there to be only one of the spheres at the mill site, but that he could be wrong, as there's still more to the demolition, making note of his favorite piece of history he's found at the site.
"For me as an engineer, it was really cool to come across the original construction drawings for Lake Logan, and so I was able to save those, and they were in my office, and I had them up high, and they didn't get flooded, so I've got some cool drawings of the mill," Williams said.
Finding the huge sphere by accident has shown the deep history the paper mill has within the town and the stories yet to be told, something Williams believes is important.
"I don't know if it's heartwarming or it's more coming to closure with the mill closing, and so I think somehow it's important. I think it's good for folks to share and it kind of just makes the connection," Williams said.
Ideas on how to work the sphere into the new development on the site after demolition and making the land more flood-resilient are already taking shape.
"During all the town functions we've talked about the riverwalk and what that greenway will be, a lot of requests have been for art or history to the mill. [It'd] be a fantastic piece to put there, so maybe it's something that can go right on the edge of the greenway," Ferguson said.
While researching the acid ball, Ferguson found another of the same height and weight as the one in Canton in Bellingham, Washington, that has been put on display, ruling out the same idea.
Although the first big discovery, both Ferguson and Williams say it might not be the last as demolition continues.
As for the sphere itself, it remains out of the way of demolition, patiently waiting to know its final resting place.