A waterfall near the former location of "Granite"

According to a series of documents and personal memoirs brought to my attention by fellow enthusiast Jason Millefoire (now retired and living in Grand Rapids but whose family once owned 160 acres of homesteaded farmland in the Alsea Valley), Granite was a colorful conglomeration of conflicting interests and priorities that came together almost by accident somewhere around 1867 and then pretty much self-destructed completely no later than 1910.

The exact cause (or causes) of what drove Granite to vanish are hinted at in the many personal communications between Jason's great grandfather Jacob and Jacob's younger brother, William. As near as I can tell strong wills, mutual distrust, and plain old bad luck are what, more than ever, led to the town disappearing back into Nature much faster and more completely than almost any other community I have yet investigated. MORE...