WILLOW CREEK — The United States is at war, and Willow Creek has begun to mobilize.

Following President Roosevelt’s address to Congress on Monday, in which he asked for a declaration of war against Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the town of Willow Creek held its first blackout drill on Wednesday evening. At 8:00 PM, the mill whistle blew three short blasts, and every light in town was extinguished for a period of thirty minutes.

The drill was organized by the town’s newly formed Civil Defense Committee, chaired by First Selectman Everett Croft. Wardens stationed at every street corner ensured that no light was visible from any window. The General Store, which normally keeps a light burning on its front porch through the night, was dark for the first time since Seamus O’Donnell opened its doors in 1923.

“We are a long way from the Pacific,” Croft said after the drill. “But blackout discipline is a habit that must be learned, and we intend to learn it. If there is an air raid — however unlikely — this town will be ready.”

The mill, which employs approximately 130 workers, has already begun shifting to wartime production. Mill manager Frank Bouchard announced that the mill has received its first government contract: the production of hardwood components for ammunition crates and wooden flooring for military vehicles.

“The planer runs day and night now,” Bouchard said. “We have orders that will keep us busy for the duration of the war. The mill that was barely surviving two years ago is now running at full capacity.”

The shift to wartime production has brought the first influx of new workers to Willow Creek since the Depression began. Three young women from Houlton have been hired to operate the planer, replacing men who have been drafted. It is the first time women have worked in production roles at the mill since the First World War.

“I never thought I would work in a mill,” said Dorothy Cheney, 22, who previously worked as a chambermaid at a hotel in Houlton. “But the war changes things. If a man can fight for his country, a woman can run a planer for her country.”

The Gazette, which has covered wars from the Spanish-American conflict through the Great War, notes in its editorial: “Willow Creek has sent its sons to war before. They have come home, some of them, and some have not. What is different this time is the sense that the war will reach into every corner of American life — even a corner as small and remote as Willow Creek, Maine.”

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