- [Narrator] Tucked into the mountains 20 miles west of Asheville sits the town of Canton.

There the Pigeon River cuts through the town center, passes by the closed down mill, and then flows more than 70 miles northwest to Tennessee, where it joins the French Broad River on its way to the Mississippi.

- My family was one of the founding families of Haywood County.

I mean, they came here because of the river and the valleys.

The river brought the paper mill.

And it will be the river that delivers us into our future.

- [Narrator] Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers reframes the mill closure as an opportunity rather than a disaster.

- I don't want our lasting legacy to be one of pity.

I want it to be one of hope, of finding that way.

That's who we've been for 115 years.

We've been Papertown, USA, and in the last decade known as Milltown.

And I think that we still can be a mill town without the mill.

- [Narrator] Canton has been in limbo since the company that owned the mill, Pactiv Evergreen, based in Raleigh, announced the closure in March 2023.

- The people were were devastated, many wringing their hands saying, "What are we going to do?"

This mill is a part of the Canton ethos, as well as the surrounding area.

So, it was bigger than a mill.

- [Narrator] The mill closure also meant the end of pollutants being dumped into the river.

Town alderman Ralph Hamlet grew up in Canton.

He says residents got used to the contaminated river and air.

- Growing up, living in close proximity to the mill, coal dust was falling constantly, but you had the pollutants from the coal.

The water quality was awful as soon as it passed through the mill.

I remember chunks of foam from the bleaching process floating on top of the river and then the river was just black.

- [Narrator] With the mill closure.

the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality says its Divisions of Water Resources and Waste Management are working with EPA on the assessment and removal, or cleanup, of known contamination issues related to fuel oil and black liquor, which is a by-product of the paper-making process.

Pactiv Evergreen, owner of the mill, declined to comment on the matter.

Despite impacts on Pigeon River air and water quality.

the mill brought money to the town.

- Well, I mean, over 115 years, where majority of the lifespan of this mill was in a time period where we did not environmental laws as we do now.

We did not have conversations.

I mean, I don't think we appreciated what humans were doing to our environment.

[water burbling] - [Narrator] But now the town has a chance for a fresh start.

- My name is Luke Etchison and I am a river conservation biologist.

[water burbling] - [Narrator] Etchison works for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

He and his team have been tracking fish populations downstream of the mill since before the mill shut down.

- And what we first noticed was just the density of fish that we were able to find.

There were some sites that we only found 15 total fish, and we went back, we found hundreds and with many more species, so immediately saw that there's just a lot more life around.

- [Narrator] Fish on this section of the Pigeon River include the Tennessee shiner with its bright orange coloring and the river chub, olive green on top with a dark green stripe running along the sides.

[water burbling] To catch and identify fish, Etchison pulses an electric shock of 250 volts that stuns but doesn't hurt the fish.

- This is a juvenile greenfin darter.

This darter isn't present anywhere that has really high pollution rates.

So basically, if we see the species, we know that the river's typically in a pretty good place, especially if you see juveniles 'cause that means there's reproduction.

[water burbling] - [Narrator] More fish means more business for the owner of Asheville Fly Fishing Company, Galen Kipar.

- As a fly fishing guide, one of the things that we look for is good water quality.

You're trying to find fish to give people as many opportunities as possible to catch fish.

Usually, when you find trout or cooler water species in a river, then you know you have cleaner water because they can only survive in these margins.

With the paper mill closing, I think that in the long run it will be a positive effect.

With Western North Carolina being a huge tourist destination for all sorts of outdoor activities, I think it's just a matter of time before it will thrive.

- [Narrator] In addition to fishing, visitors to Canton can follow a snorkel trail to see fish rather than catch them.

Species include darters, sculpins, and smallmouth bass.

- You know, we see this as an opportunity to really bring out the best of North Carolina as we go forward, and especially in environmental realm.

And so there's a lot of grants for helping us to understand the environmental side.

We have not been paralyzed by this.

There has been, you know, several of these moments of just pure sadness and just, you know...

But every time it happens, we find a way to pick ourselves back up.

- This Pigeon River's a special place and Canton is a river town and this will it the maximum opportunity for seeing its full potential as a river town.

It's already showing that if you give the river a chance, it'll find its way back.

[gentle music]