112 



ing seven-handicap golf. "No reason I couldn't have 

 worked to 65," he declares. "1 would ha\e had six more 

 years' contributions to my pension and qualified for high- 

 er Social Security. The park took that away from me." 



Another former logger, who spoke on condition of 

 anonymity, still spits out the word "park" angrily. "I went 

 down to the unemployment office and they suggested I 

 should go into retraining," he says bitterly. "They said, 

 take a two-year course in computers. And then what 

 would 1 have done? Hell, there probably weren't ten 

 computers in all of Humboldt Coimtv." 



Donavan Tohnan, an earnest, friendly man of 49 who 

 was in his 30s and a repair shop supervisor at a saw mill 

 when the bill passed Congress, works now as a custodian 

 for eight Mormon churches. Still, he's happy to have 

 found a job that would at least keep him on the North 

 Coast. "I couldn't think of leaving here," he says. "My 

 dad and his dad cut trees to bring the highway into 

 Crescent City. My roots are in this area. I'd rather starve 

 than leave." 



Although locals can fill you with stories about laid-off 

 workers who squandered five-figure payoffs on speed- 

 boats or Mexican vacations, there were also success sto- 

 ries-those who used the mone\ to carve out new li\es. .\ 

 beekeeper hobbyist, for instance, set up a business to 

 provide pollination services to farmers and fruit grow- 

 ers. Shirlev Brown is another success. Brown had worked 

 for Simpson's personnel office computing laid-off eni- 

 plovees" REPP eligibility, and then was laid off herself. 

 She first took benefits "and watched my sons play basket- 

 ball for a few months." Then, she won a hard-earned sev- 

 erance judgment. She invested in a truck and set up 

 Shirley Brown Enterprises, negotiating trucking con- 

 tracts for herself and 30-odd subhaulers. She now has 

 .five office employees. 



John Grobey, professor of economics at Humboldt 

 State, shakes his head as he says that his most dire pre- 

 diction, that the park would destroy the county's eco- 

 nomic base, came true. "The taxpayers spent a lot of 

 monev, but not much came of it. Certainly not much 

 benefited the people here. They feel betrayed." 



After nine years of litigation, the federal government 

 paid out $688 million to three timber companies for land 

 taken in the expansion. Interest and payments to small 

 landowners drove the final purchase price above $1 bil- 



