LEAH NASH PHOTOGRAPHY

STORIES | ESSAYS: Rural Poverty in Oregon

A booming lumber town in the 50s, 60s and 70s Oakridge, OR has been struggling for ways to retool its economy ever since the decline of logging. In the early 1990s the closure of the major employer in the area, the Pope & Talbot's Mill took 500 to 600 jobs and in 1991 a fire destroyed most of the remaining structures. Though the area was transformed into an industrial park the majority of the land remains untouched.
A booming lumber town in the 50s, 60s and 70s Oakridge, OR has been struggling for ways to retool its economy ever since the decline of logging. In the early 1990s the closure of the major employer in the area, the Pope & Talbot's Mill took 500 to 600 jobs and in 1991 a fire destroyed most of the remaining structures. Though the area was transformed into an industrial park the majority of the land remains untouched.