Once the old growth timber ran out (in
the 1970s) the company ripped up the railroad spur and sold the
town and surrounding timber rights. It was bought a sold a few
more times, eventually ending up with Boise Cascade Corporation.
In 1983, Boise Cascade announced that all operations at Valsetz
would end early the next year. By the end of 1984, the town and most of its
structures had been removed, bulldozed, or burned, and the whole area
became part of the Valsetz Tree Farm. The mill pond, named Valsetz
Lake, was drained in 1988.
About all that's left now are some
flattened spaces that used to be roads and building sites. The
surrounding hills are still being actively logged for second and
third-growth timber, and log trucks (which have the unquestioned
right of way in those parts) rumble down the gravel roads from
dawn 'til dark. Some twenty miles beyond the old townsite there is
the Valley of the Giants, a 51-acre patch of ground owned by the
BLM that is home to one of the few remaining stands of Old Growth
timber in the coast range.
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