Berlin, once a CoosCounty paper hub whose motto is "The City That Trees Built, " had been a bustling mill town of more than 15, 000 in 1970 but by 2010 had lost nearly 40% of its population, he said.
For more than 100 years, paper mills were the economic engine of northern New Hampshire, and by the 1970s there were four mills in a 25-mile radius in CoosCounty, a string of small towns with misty mountain views and moose-crossing road signs.