On June 13, 1938, the Southland Paper Mills, Inc. was organized, the next year the mill site was dedicated to Herty on May 27, 1939, and the first commercial newsprint made of Southern pine started production at this facility on January 17, 1940. The St. Regis Paper Company purchased controlling interest in Southland and eventually purchased it outright in 1977, and in 1984 Champion International Corporation bought St. Regis to become the largest manufacturer of "white paper" and the second largest domestic producer of newsprint. In 2000, Herty was posthumously inducted into the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame. A year later, on September 26, 2001, his work was designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society and a plaque was installed at the Savannah Pulp and Paper Laboratory (now the Herty Advanced Materials Development Center) in Savannah, Georgia.