©Oregon Historical Society

Just an hour from Portland, the concrete ruins of a timber empire sit quietly at the edge of Vernonia Lake, all that remains of one of Oregon’s most ambitious sawmill operations. Built in 1924 by the Oregon-American Lumber Company, the mill once spanned more than 100 acres and was considered state-of-the-art for its time. According to a company history, “The Oregon-American Lumber Company: Ain’t No More,” the mill generated its own electricity. …Vernonia was a remote farming outpost of about 150 people when timber magnate David Eccles and his sons established the company in 1917. After building a rail line into the Nehalem Valley in 1922, the company began constructing what it would call “The Most Perfect Mill in the World.” …The original company was reorganized during the Depression as the Oregon-American Lumber Corporation, then acquired by Long-Bell Lumber Company in 1953 and again by International Lumber Company in 1956. The final log reached the mill on Aug. 27, 1957.