I never cease to be amazed at the shock and wringing of hands when a lumber mill closes. How many mills have closed and been relagated to the scrap heap in the last forty years? It seems to me the level of denial that the lumber industry is dead in California rises in inverse proportion to the few lumber plants still in operation. The lumber industry in California is dead and there will never be some form of rapture which will return the industry to its glory days. It just ain't gonna happen.

Just in the Sierra there is Loyalton, CalPine, Graeagle, Feather Falls, Tuolumne, Camino, Pondosa, McCloud, Diamond Springs, Greenville, Westwood, Susanville. All gone along with countless others and they will never be lumber towns again. By now, Standard has joined the list.