PORT EDWARDS -- Steve Devine has traveled this road before.

Devine, who turns 57 next month, worked as a dispatcher at a trucking company for 16 years. But when the Wisconsin Rapids firm went out of business in 1991, he managed to land a good job nearby at the paper mill in Port Edwards, a village of about 2,000 nestled along the Wisconsin River.

Now, after 16 years at the mill, Devine is looking for a job again -- and his prospects are bleaker this time around. Montreal-based Domtar last month closed the Port Edwards mill, which is about 100 miles northwest of Madison, and eliminated 500 jobs from the region.

"There aren 't too many jobs in Wisconsin Rapids that pay $50,000 a year, " said Devine, who was making $21.48 an hour at the mill plus overtime. "At my age, there isn 't a lot of choices. "

The mill closing is the latest casualty in Wisconsin 's iconic paper industry, which has lost more than 16,000 jobs over 10 years, according to the latest state figures. It 's also another blow to the state 's struggling manufacturing base.

"You feel sorry to see any decent-paying jobs leave the state, " said Port Edwards Village President Ed Saylor, who worked at the mill for 35 years. He took a pay cut to work at another nearby Domtar mill after the closure was announced. "These jobs sent a lot of people 's kids to school and helped support the state 's economy. I 'm sure Janesville is just like we are. "

General Motors announced in June that it would stop production at its Janesville assembly plant by 2010. At one time, it employed more than 7,000 workers. Today, fewer than 2,500 work there, and those who remain are being phased out starting this summer.

Port Edwards has already started coming to terms with the situation Janesville will soon face: losing a business that virtually defined the community and offered workers a good living for many years.

"It is bad news, " said Connie Loden, executive director for Heart of Wisconsin Business & Economic Alliance, an economic development organization for the Wisconsin Rapids area. "It won 't happen overnight, but there are things in the works that will help us transition. "

No mill in mill town

Until last month, people had been making paper in Port Edwards for more than 100 years -- many kinds, most recently specializing in fine writing stock. At one point, the mill employed as many as 1,200.

But the impact of the closing is measured in more than jobs.

Over the years, mill profits built the YMCA, parks, the high school auditorium, the shopping center and the pool. The money funded marching band uniforms and helped start the fire department. Some in town still own lots given to them by the mill.

Today, corporate ownership is far removed from Port Edwards -- where a lumber mill owner trying to diversify his business started the paper mill in 1895. The business changed hands a number of times over the years, and jobs were trimmed in the process, until Domtar bought the mill in 2001.

For decades, the mill was locally owned. The brick smokestack at the mill still bears the NEPCO name, which stood for the Nekoosa Edwards Paper Co. For now, the fate of the shuttered 120-acre site is unclear.

"They didn 't just upkeep the mill, they kept the community up, " said historian Marshall Buehler, 81, who worked in sales for 39 years at the Port Edwards mill while it was still locally owned. "The paternalism is gone. "

Port Edwards is just one of several Wisconsin towns to lose longtime paper jobs this year.

In May, NewPage Corp. based in Miamisburg, Ohio, shut down a paper machine at its mill in Kimberly near Appleton, eliminating 125 jobs. NewPage also is eliminating about 200 white-collar jobs in Wisconsin Rapids. In June, it closed its mill in Niagara, in far northeastern Wisconsin, eliminating 319 jobs from the Marinette County community of 1,850.

Part of industry trend

Although Wisconsin has led the nation in paper making for more than 50 years, the latest layoffs are part of a decade-long trend.

In 1990, about 50,000 people worked in paper manufacturing statewide. Employment peaked in 1997 at 51,784, but tumbled to 35,445 by 2007, according to the state Department of Workforce Development.

The job losses are tied to several factors, including mergers and acquisitions by huge international firms and the fact that modern paper-making machines require fewer workers. In addition, the production of cheaper paper has been shifted to other countries such as China, Chile, Korea and Malaysia, where production costs are much lower and demand for paper is rising.

"People are coming to understand what is happening in the paper industry and the ownership structure, " said Don Novak, city administrator for Niagara, hard hit by last month 's closure. "Paper mills are no longer owned by paper makers. They 're owned by investors. "

Even so, paper remains a $4 billion economic engine for Wisconsin.

The paper and forest products industry was the largest employer in 28 of the state 's 72 counties, according to a 2003 Wisconsin Paper Council analysis. In 14 more counties, it was among the top three employers, the Appleton-based trade group said.

"It means a great deal to the state, " said Jeff Landin, president of the Paper Council. "We 're concerned, but the industry is doing a lot to rein in their costs. "

Capital improvements to some of mills and job cuts of the last 10 years may help stabilize the paper industry in the state, he said.

Procter & Gamble in Green Bay recently started a new paper machine in one of its mills, and Wausau Paper is in the middle of a $15 million improvement project at its mill in Brokaw, just north of Wausau, he said.

"I 'm heartened to see that there has been some investment in mills, " Landin said. "There are some things that are happening on the good side. "

'A big blow'

In Port Edwards, the mill closure left 500 workers with uncertain futures -- and big decisions to make.

"It came as a big blow, " Dick Goldamer, who started working at the mill in 1970, said of the announcement. "It scared me. I was 63, and I knew right there that that was the end of the road for me. "

He decided to retire, along with Edward Hasenohrl, 62, who started at the mill in 1966.

"I knew the end was coming, but I didn 't think it would come this fast, " Hasenohrl said. "But Dick and I are very fortunate. "

Another man who considers himself lucky is Saylor, the village president, who had to take a $4-an-hour pay cut to stay with the company. He was one of 73 Port Edwards workers with enough seniority to bump a less-experienced worker out of a job at the mill downstream in Nekoosa.

"I 'm in good shape, " said Saylor, 55, who will see his hourly wage fall from $27 to $23. "You watch these young people, and you hope they can get a job. "

Devine, 56 years old but with only 16 years under his belt, didn 't have enough seniority. So he had no choice but to take the severance -- 16 weeks of pay and six months of paid health insurance -- and look for a job. He worries now about when he 'll be able to retire, which he figures won 't be until he 's 67.

Many of the younger workers who were laid off are going back to school, but Devine said that option isn 't realistic for him. Instead, he 's looking at an eight-week truck-driving course in Eau Claire. He hopes that will translate into a job that pays $30,000 to $40,000 a year, significantly less than he made at the mill.

If he doesn 't have a job after six months, he 'll switch to his wife 's health insurance plan. She works as a nurse four days a week. Their two children are grown and out of the house.

The Devines also have a second mortgage on their Wisconsin Rapids home from a remodeling project last year. He said they would have held off on the project had they known the mill would close.

"There was hope that someone would come in and buy the place, " said Jim Kizewski, president of the United Steel Workers Local 59, which represents workers in Port Edwards and Nekoosa. "It 's a shame. I don 't know who to blame. It 's devastating to hear that your plant is shutting down. "