Oregon daily emerald., April 21, 1978, Page 10 and 11, Image 10

Kinzua, Wheeler County
1
When the
company goes,
does the town go with it?
Stories and Photos
By PATRICK SULLIVAN
Of the Emerald
Editor's note: Northwest Research Center
of Eugene helped Patrick Sullivan on the
following articles by providing research
data.
Life in Kinzua, nestled in the Blue Moun
tains of northeast Wheeler County, Oregon,
revolves around the sawmill there. The mill
and the town are owned by Kinzua Corpora
tion, which makes it a company town and a
dependent community.
Unfortunately, Kinzua Corporation an
nounced in January that it will halt production
at the mill when its current log supply is usee
Some of the sawmill's older workers with seniority hope to move on with the company
when it opens a fully-automated mill 65 miles east of Kinzua.
up. The company gave no specific date, but
the Emerald has learned that June 1 wiil be
the last working day for the mill's 160 em
ployees.
Those 160 workers represent one-fifth of
the workforce in Wheeler County, which is
already considered “economically lagging
by the state. The effect of the closure goes
beyond statistics though, because some of
the 150 Kinzuans count two generations of
workers at the mill.
Ray Cody and his wife have lived in Kinzua
for 22 years, nearly half of the town's life. Ray
worked in the mill while the couple raised a
son, Otis, who now drives a log truck for the
company.
The mill’s impending cosure leaves Mrs.
Cody sad. “We feel pretty bad. We've worked
hard on this place,” she says.
The Cody's attachment to the town is un
derstandable. The shrill steam whistle atop
the mill’s boiler room has been waking them
up in the morning and sending them home in
the afternoon for a long time.
The Cody's home, like all of the 50 num
bered houses that perch on the hills sur
rounding the sawmill, is rented from the com
pany. Rent ranges from $45 to $65 a month.
In 1968 a timber industry publication de
scribed the town as “one of the few remaining
company towns in the US....one hundred
miles from nowhere...with just about every
thing most little towns have and a heckuva lot
more than most.”
Everything the town has is owned by the
Kinzua Corporation, which is owned by a
group of wealthy Seattle businessmen.
The town's block-long, dusty main street
contains a U S. Post Office, a general store, a
gas station, a tavern, ancfa restaurant. The
tavern becomes a rollicking dance hall on
Saturday nights. A one room wooden church
and an eroding basketball court complete the
core of Kinzua.
Just outside the town is a rundown
schoolhouse that used to be supported by
the company and farther north is a company
— owned lake and 6-hole golf course.
The town's charm certainly captivated Otis
i Cody when he was a youngster. Cody began
constructing a scale model of Kinzua when
I he was 12.
For seven years he worked on the project in
the backyard of his parent's home overlook
I- ing the mill. The smokestacks of his mini-mill
puffed out smoke and tree branches he cut
served as the log supply. He brought minia
ture trucks to fit the mill and built small
houses to surround it.
Cody, now 22, moved out of his parent’s
home a few years ago and the miniature town
deteriorated
Today, only the model mill remains, its
three smoke stacks askew. Deer from the
surrounding forest have trampled the other
buildings.
The broken wood and crushed homes are
a strange foreboding of the town's fate.
Since the announcement of the mill s(clos
ure Otis Cody’s attitude toward living i i the
town has changed. “You get up in the morn
ing," he says, "I dunno — it's just no! the
same. I don’t know it it’s worth it anymcre."
The Cody's, like all the mill’s emplo ees,
learned of the company’s decision to shi t the
plant by reading the newspaper accotii ts in
January. Harry Stuchell, administrate i as
sistant for Kinzua, contends that uniot offi
cials for the workers were told in Nove nber
that the mill would close soon
Allen Nistad, operations manag r at
Kinzua's sawmill, explains, "If those wo kers
would get out of the tavern and go to their
union meetings, they would know wha was
going on.”
The mill’s union representative. Earl Nor
ris, says that seven days before the clisure
announcement company officials tolc him
the mill might shut down Norris found oit the
mill would definitely close along with h ; co
workers by reading eastern Oregon i ;ws
papers.
While some workers are upset by the and
ling of the closure, not many are surf ised
that the mill is closing
A year ago Mrs. Cody says she I eard
rumors that the mill would close.
She adds, “And then the factory (tha pro
duced small wood items) closed and they
took out the planer and we could se the
writing on the wall.”
Bryant Dunn, Kinzua Corporation t :>ard
member, lists the company’s reason for
closing the mill as lack of old growth ti iber
and the impracticality of remodeling tti mill
which was built in 1927.
Dunn also said “environmental const era
tions" have forced the closure. (See ac om
panyirtg story).
“Kinzua is an old fashioned mill gear'd to
large, old growth timber...our holdings are
pretty well cut over,” he says.
At the same time the corporation is shut
ting down timber operations in Kinzua I will
be firing up a $4.5 million fully automated
sawmill in Heppner, Oregon, 65 miles tithe
east.
The new mill will require one-quarter the
manpower used by Kinzua, says Dunn, ind it
is designed for the small timber beingjhar
vested from the company's holdings 4 the
area.
The company has announced it will make
every effort to place the 160 terminated emp
loyees,” but only 15 jobs will be open when
the Heppner mill starts up in June.
Dunn believes “some of the older workers
will retire when Kinzua shuts down and sev
eral will come to Heppner."
While Dunn doesn't know what the bulk of
the Kinzua workforce will do in June. Barry
Startz, the town's tavern and restaurant
manager, thinks that anyone who can stay in
Kinzua will try to hang on.
“Nearly every person who lives here wants
to stay even without a mill,” says Startz.
DEQ ignores sloppy sewage system
“You want to know how they get rid of
sewage in Kinzua, (Oregon),” asked Steve
Gardels of the Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ), "they put it in barrels and bury
it under the creek (above town)."
Gardels, Oregon’s eastern region man
ager of the DEQ, admits that his office has
been aware of the irregular sewage system
for the past five years without forcing the
town’s owner, Kinzua Corporation, to comply
with sewage disposal standards.
He explains, “Five years ago Kinzua Cor
poration confided in us that it would be clos
ing the mill there. If the mill had wanted to
stay open permanently they would have had
to comply."
The mill will be closed June 1 and the com
pany has said it will maintain services to the
town of 150 for about another year. The com
pany has provided fire, water, sewage and
power services to the workers living in homes
surrounding the mill since 1953.
One of the reasons given for the closure is
“environmental considerations.”
The mill’s boiler has been in violation of
Environmental Protection Agency standards
in the past but a recent renovation of the
power source has lowered the air pollution to
legal levels.
The sewage system has always been a
problem for the 49-year-old town because
there is only six inches of top soil around
most of area and non-porous soil lies under
neath it, according to Gardels.
A septic tank system has been used in the
past but hasn’t worked because of the soil
conditions.
The raw sewage from the town has had
various disposal sites over the years. It used
to be dumped into a creek bed in a ravine
outside of town, it has been buried in barrels
and it has been poured out on the ground.
Gardels said, “The barrels in the creek and
sewage on the ground works pretty well, de
pending on the weather.”
The result of Kinzua's irregular sewage
system has been “some surfacing of sewage
and some river contamination,” according to
Gardels.
Since 1973 Gardels says that when com
plaints came up about Kinzua’s system the
DEQ was always assured that the town
would be closed and there was no com
pliance required.
Harry Stuchell, an administrative assistant
for Kinzua Corporation, says the company
never told the DEQ it would be closing the
town.
Stuchell said, “During negotiations with
the DEQ about the sewage problems, it (clos
ing the town) was only an alternative men
tioned.”
Stuchell describes Kinzua's sewage sys
tem as, “basically dry well...with a dispersal
system.” He refused to give a full explana
tion.
‘‘I’d rather not have that printed (an expla
nation). We don’t need to get into any more
hot water than we are already in," he added.
Some Kinzua residents have said they
would like to stay on after the mill closes. If
any do they will have to construct a sewage
system that complies with DEQ standards.
Each case would be reviewed separately,
according to Gardels.
The cost of a sewage system for the town
would be very high, says Gardels, who
couldn’t make a specific estimate.
He says, "I can t see a small amount of
people paying for a system for the town.”
‘This town ain’t dead yet,’ says store manager
The fate of Kinzua, Oregon is a much dis
cussed topic now that the town’s owner and
operator, Kinzua Corporation, has an
nounced it will close its sawmill there June 1.
In this company town of 150 persons, the
future is in the company’s hands.
One resident says glibly, ‘‘Kinzua will dry
up and blow away with the wind this sum
mer." Barry Startz, the town’s tavern and res
taurant manager, has a different prediction.
"Sure we’ll be here after the mill closes,
we’ll keep it open,” he says from behind the
lunch counter of his 25-seat restaurant.
Startz can speak about what he would like
to happen, but the decision makers are a
group of Seattle businessmen who run Kin
zua Corporation and therefore run the town.
The company announced in January that it
planned to maintain services to the town for a
year after the mill closes. The question of the
town's fate remains in the summer of 79.
Harry Stuchell, administrative assistant for
Kinzua Corporation, says the company
will allow Kinzuans to live in the town as long
as it is “economically feasible.”
Stuchell is pessimistic about the town's fu
ture because it lies in the company’s timber
management area and there will probably be
cutting near the town soon.
Startz, a communications professor at the
University in 1968. hopes the town can sur
vive its problems.
“Kinzua has an ailment, but it is not a dying
sickness," he said as millworkers crowded
into his restaurant to eat their lunches out of
brown paper bags.
The prognosis for a recovery from Kinzua’s
ailment was brightened recently when a
small logging firm contacted Startz. The
company expressed interest in setting up
operations at the mill left by the corporation.
Startz passed the letter on to Kinzua offi
cials, but worries the company “probably put
it in file #13 (the wastebasket).’’
Stuchell acknowledges receiving the letter
along with a lot of inquiries about the
company’s plan for the town. He says. “The
company doesn't intend on selling any land
at this time.’’
Startz says the townspeople would like to
run the town after the company moves out
but are up against a company that refuses to
bargain.
Regardless of Kinzua's cloudy future,
Startz envisions an altered but thriving town.
“Some people will have to move out ol
Kinzua when the mill closes because they
have small children and can’t wait the two
years it might take to attract a new industry
here.’’
Startz gave up his professorship at the
University and moved to Kinzua because of
the town's friendliness and solitude.
"You can wave to every person who drives
by and they will wave back. And it gets nice
and damn quiet out there."
A woman sitting in Startz s tavern added,
This is a good place to raise kids, there is no
crime and few strangers."
The number of strangers and the noise
level in town have changed recently as
Kinzua's plight has been reported in the Pon
land media.
We had 60 o or 70 tourists here las
weekend," said Startz. Seventy tourists in
Kinzua is comparable to 30,000 sightseers
dropping in on Eugene.
Startz says the town survived the rush of
people but residents are growing weary of
the attention.
Kinzua has also attracted the attention of
elderly persons interested in moving into
empty homes left by terminated employees.
The future use of the houses is questionable
though, because of Kinzua's irregular sew
age syste. (See accompanying article.)
Startz listened to this reporter review the
uncertain future of his town as he relaxed in
front of his restaurant and then exclaimed,
'This town ain’t dead yet.”
A worker sauntering back to the mill after
lunch responded to Startz.
“This town ain’t kicking much though.
Barry Startz former University professor, manages the company owned restaurant and
tavern realistically called The Pastime
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