SUN JOURNAL • January 15, 2025
If you’ve been bowling since the 1980s in this country, chances are the lanes you rolled the ball down were made in central Maine. And they were made from layers of paper, not strips of wood. Tucked away in the woods sits Panolam Surface Systems, known for many years locally as Pioneer Plastics. The name has changed but it remains the sole supplier of high pressure laminate, or HPL, synthetic bowling lanes to the top three manufacturers of bowling products — Brunswick, AMF and US Bowling. It’s the same plant where laminate countertops and other laminate products have been competing with brands like Formica for decades. The products today are more varied and have become much more advanced.