What lumber mills?

In January 1998, the day the north end closed for good, a total of 12 forest products plants operated between Fort Bragg and Humboldt Bay. Those plants and their current dispositions are as follows:

Georgia Pacific, Fort Bragg- closed, site completely leveled.
Pacific Lumber, Scotia- Now operated by Humboldt Redwood Company, but a shadow of PALCo operations.
Eel River Sawmills, Stone- Closed, site completely leveled.
Pacific Lumber, Carlotta- Closed, site completely leveled.
Pacific Lumber, Fortuna- Closed, site completely leveled.
Schmidbauer Lumber, Eureka- Still operating, though they were only good for a car or two a night when the railroad was running.
Arcata Redwood, Brainard- In the last years of the railroad it was a Simpson property and finished some lumber trucked down from Korbel. Closed now, though buildings are still there.
Sierra Pacific Industries, Manila- Recently closed down, buildings are still there.
Louisiana Pacific, Samoa- This actually shut down shortly before the railroad closed.
Louisiana Pacific, Korblex- Flakeboard plant, closed, some buildings torn down.
Blue Lake Forest Products, Glendale- operated through a Korblex reload after operations over the A&MR ceased about 1993. Closed, site leveled.
Simpson Redwood, Korbel- closed a couple years ago, some recent news to the effect Schmidbauer was in the process of purchasing and reopening the property.

Throw in a couple cars a year of butter from the Fernbridge creamery and a small amount of gravel traffic loaded nor far north of Willits right near the end, and you have the near complete traffic base of the railroad. Wasn't in all honesty nearly enough to sustain viable railroad operations 18 years ago, the closed sawmills aren't coming back any time soon (if ever) should the line be rebuilt and placed back in operation, and baring something like Eureka becoming the major west coast container port some people envision it becoming there just isn't enough business or potential business up there to rebuild the line, IF you could get it through the permitting phase and inevitable legal challenges. And no way would passenger operations of any form be enough to make the line viable without freight to pay the bills, and we've already covered those prospects...

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV