For much of the 1900s, Grand Rapids and the Blandin Paper Mill were basically one and the same. Much of the economy of the city of 8,000 people was tied directly to the paper mill. The mill was a success because they continually lead the industry in the quality of their coated paper products, the type of paper that magazines like Time and Newsweek are printed on.

The dam was started in May of 1901 on the Grand Rapids of the Mississippi River, at the base of a stretch of water falls that dropped 30 feet in just over 3 miles. The mill started operation in 1902. Blandin operated the mill throughout the 1900s, until the mill was sold in 1977. The mill was sold again in 1997 to UPM, a Finnish company with world-wide paper mill holdings. While the mill continues to operate, paper making requires far few people to run the mill in this age of automation. In 2001, the mill set a world record by running a coating machine for 24 hours straight at an average speed of 5,656 feet of paper per minute, which is over 64 miles of paper per hour.