For 100 years the Cottrell Paper Company has operated a mill along the Kayaderosseras Creek. Now, after four generations, the Rock City Falls company has been added to the New York State’s Historic Business Preservation Registry. And the mill is churning ahead as it does anything but paper over the past.
Since 1926, the Cottrell family has been producing paper goods for everyone from local business to international corporations.
“When my great-grandfather decided he wanted to do this he was working for another paper company. He went to the leaders of that company and said ‘I have an idea to make cotton paper out of denim blue jeans.’ And they didn’t buy into his idea so he said, ‘I’m going to go out on my own and do it,’ and here we are 100 years later making that same product,” said Joshua Cottrell.
Now, all these years later, Joshua Cottrell and his brother James Cottrell are keeping the legacy alive.
Their signature product is Copaco, insulating paper used in pretty much any electronic device you could think of.
It’s hot and loud in the mill, as one might expect – it’s got 51 employees working around the clock as business has picked up coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While a new cutter has allowed the mill to produce upwards of 60,000 pounds of paper a week, there’s also what’s called a rewinder that the brothers say predates their family’s purchase of the mill a century ago.
The Cottrells are quick to point out that the mill was “eco-friendly” before it was cool – they use minimal chemicals and James Cottrell says they return the water from the creek cleaner than they got it.
“We make strong, special paper with horse power. Not with chemicals and fillers and all that other stuff. A lot of places put in cheap stuff to make their paper, we just put horse power to it,” said James Cottrell.
Around 70% of their orders are shipped to China, and their orders can range dramatically in size from just 50 pounds of paper to upwards of 40,000 pounds. Joshua Cottrell says it’s important to continue fulfilling small orders, even as their business expands.
“The 50-pound order doesn’t matter to us in the grand-scheme of things but at the same time it’s all about customer service. We didn’t get here because of all the big people, we got here because of all the small people and then built up to the big people. We pride ourselves in being able to service anybody. So, that’s why we’ll continue to service people down to a 50-pound order, that’s our minimum. Sometimes that’s too much for people. And sometimes I give them samples, if they just want one or two sheets I say, ‘what’s your address?’ and ship them a sheet,” said Joshua Cottrell.
It’s not just inherited principle. Their approach to business seems to be working. This month alone they’ve gotten a $2 million order and Joshua Cottrell says they’re a $12 million-a-year business.
Last year was the first year in Cottrell’s century of operation where every employee got a bonus.
Joshua Cottrell says they’re busy looking for ways to expand their operations and strike while the iron’s hot.
“We don’t feel like it’s something where it’s just something where we’re going to sit on what we built up in the last 20 years and see what happens. We want to continue to grow the place and see if it can become twice as big in the next 20 years because if you just sit around and don’t do anything when you got the money and then you fall on hard times, you don’t have money to make the improvements that you need,” said Joshua Cottrell.
In fact, the brothers are already pioneering a new direction – hemp paper products. They’re busy fulfilling orders for 100% hemp bags and recently got an order for hemp joint filters.
Hemp stalks take just three months to reach full maturity, as opposed to the decades needed for traditional wood sources.
Recent regulatory changes, set to go into effect November 2026, widened the definition of criminalized hemp products.
While their hemp fiber bags won’t be banned under the new definitions, the brothers say they’re keeping an eye out in case that changes.
“It’s a tough thing to deal with when the government goes back and forth, one way this time then they’re fighting back the other way the next time. It’s not for me. I can’t fight that, I’m just one small company, “said Joshua Cottrel.
“We just made a better bag, if the world wants it, we’ll sell it to them,” said James Cottrell.
“We’ll do what we can, if it doesn’t make sense or we get regulated or we can’t sell it, I guess we’ll put it on the back burner until someone else comes in and says it’s legal again,” said Joshua Cottrell.
For now, the brothers say, they’re focused on keeping their employees and customers happy like their father, grandfather, and great grandfather did before them.
“Our main focus right now is how to produce more paper efficiently. All good paper. If we make a lot of bad paper that’s not good either. We need to make all good paper all the time,” said Joshua Cottrell.
