108 



Federal, slate and local government payrolls-high- 

 lighted by the new Pelican Bav maximum-security prison 

 in Del Norte County and Humboldt State University in 

 Humboldt-have replaced forest products as the major 

 ; employer. Del None, which once resounded to the whine 

 of 52 sawmills, is down to its last mill, the Miller Red- 

 wcK>d Company, which last fall reduced operations to a 

 single shift and now employs fewer than 125 people. 

 During the 1992-93 rainy season, one of two remaining 

 pulp mills in Humboldt County shut down, throwing an- 

 other 262 persons out of work. 



1 



; A little logging town sure to profit 



i 



I Drive along U.S. Highway 101 through the once thriving 



community of Orick and you see economic distress at its 



absolute worst. Set in a lush valley and surrounded by 



: parklands, the litde logging town was pictured by park 



I proponents as a potential tourist mecca, sure to profit 



1 from hordes of visitors who would flock to the nearbv 



t ' 



! park. "They said we were going to have so many people 

 ] up here in ten years that this little town wouldn't be able 

 ; to handle them," recalls Pat Dorsey, a former county su- 

 j pxervisor and owner of the town's social center, the Lum- 

 i berjack Lounge. "Well, the park hasn't brought in a 

 penny of business." Meanwhile, all but one of the town's 

 1 sawmills closed. Population dropped from 1,500 to 



1 about r)0()-"and most of them are on welfare." Dorsev 

 i says. No niurisi facilities were opened. In a final twist ol 

 i in)ny, the parks visitor center was constructed oil the 

 ' site of one of the closed mills. 



From the Lumberjack Lounge's front door. Dorsev, 

 now a gri/zled 83. looks out on sagging, paim-peeling 

 houses and shops peddling redwood sculpture. "People 

 call it 'the chain-saw massacre.'" Dorsev savs. Even the 

 Western .Ancient Forest Campaign's director Jim Owens 

 acknowledges. "The town was just left to wither and die." 



\et continue a few miles north and you can appreciate 

 jail the glory and magnificence of the great trees for 

 which the original battles were waged. Bald Hills Road 

 leads past Oricks last sawmill, then climbs steeplv uphill 

 to Lady Bird Johnson Grove. An easy foot trail winds 

 among giants hvmdreds of years old, many as tall as a 20- 

 story building and bigger in diameter than an oversize 

 banquet table. Sunlight filters softly through the lattice- 



