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August 1, 2016

How tech saved Oregon lumber town

  • Prineville's turnaround is all the more remarkable because it's a three-hour drive from Portland and light years from its liberal, hipster culture.
  • By ANDREW SELSKY
    Associated Press

    PRINEVILLE, Oregon — It was not long ago that Crook County had five major lumber mills. Timber was king, and the rural Oregon county was the nation's top producer of ponderosa lumber.

    But amid restrictions on harvesting from federal lands, logging started to freefall around 1990. The county's mills began closing. The global recession hit a few years later. Unemployment soared to around 20 percent, the highest in Oregon.


     
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