Thank you for making this video. I was raised in Valsetz until I went to Alaska in 1973. This video let's my children and grandchildren see my home town that I can never take them to see.

@MrBrian4109

2 жыл бұрын

Left Alsea in 73 , still remember watching games vs Valsetz. Graduated Philomath in 83, history of Company Towns need to be taught in States where it happened ! I only found out when I saw pics of Valsetz burning in the Corvallis GT.

This was a beautiful tribute to a forgotten town remembered by few. I was never a resident but from 1973-1976 I was there many times doing hearing testing, in my yellow step side van, for Industrial Testing out of Eugene. I was young and loved the journey there and the remoteness of the town / mill and the charm of the community. Thanks to all who have created this lasting memory

I remember Valsetz. My uncle. Falls City. It's hard to live in Grants Pass now. The crime and drugs. But. The people of Valsetz.m They meant a lot to me.

I never pondered what it is like to be from a place that no longer exists. That’s hard to wrap your mind around.

My grandparents arrived there in the early 1930s. My mother and her siblings were raised there, Mom remained, married and raised my sister and I. My sister left to Alaska in the early 70s. I married a fellow Valsetzian and we resided in Valsetz until mid 70s. Mom and Dad left Valsetz when the town closed. As with any place, it had good and bad. Idyllic in many ways but not without its dark side.

Bravo, Ronan... stories count. Glad you followed the threads on this one...

my mom grew up there from the early 30's to 48. I've got the photos of it back then.

@ronanfeely3746

11 ай бұрын

Hello! There is Facebook group where people share photos etc. facebook.com/groups/136668428493

My name was Cathy Chase and i was a member of the class of 1964! I wish i could have been there as the class of 1984 was graduated! But unfortuntely i couldnt be! I will.always remember that little town that i grew up in!! And all the kids i knew!!

I remember another mill town not far from there called Peedee

Well done...I put this on to use as a little background noise while I folded laundry. I am 30 minutes into the video and have folded exactly zero laundry. Thank you for this very interesting history of my home state Oregon.

I drove through Valsetz yesterday, Sunday June 12 with my two daughters. I didn’t have any history on the area, but noticed a foundation and some weird road layouts. We were on our way to the Valley of the Giants. My oldest daughter and I felt weird/sad in the area, and didn’t know why. I marked it on my map and looked into it today. I’m so glad I did, and I’m so glad for this video. Looking forward to going back and exploring it more. Thank you!!!

I still drive up to valsetz every few days. It hurts my heart to say that there is virtually nothing left. The foundation of the mill, and some bricks buried deep in the woods. If you walk the old streets, they are so grown in I have to use a machete to make sure they don’t turn into a wall of vegetation. I just can’t stop going up there, no matter how sad it makes me.

@nathanjones4039

10 ай бұрын

I moved to Falls City in 93 and went to High School there until I eventually moved to Salem, always wanted to go up to Valsetz, but not knowing the area, never have been up there.

@oldschoolboxing6048

9 ай бұрын

​@@nathanjones4039 you may find yourself confused attempting to get up there alone without sombody showing you the way. Its a beautiful area. And was a beautiful town. But now just woods and some concrete foundations.

I grew in Dallas, but we used to hunt and fish in the Valsetz area. When I was in high school us kids would drive our Jeeps up there and explore. When I was older if I had a particularly bad day I would run up to Valsetz with my canoe and spend the afternoon/evening fishing, and the world would be right again. My brother and I and our friends spent a lot of time steelhead fishing on the Siletz river. This was an absolutely amazing documentary of not only a lost town, but a lost way of life.

I love this so much, the history of the town that I spent the first years of my life in. My Mom & Dad still have lots of pictures from when we were there. My Mom told me that we had a doe that would eat out of my hand in our yard.

Thank you for this! I lived in Valsetz from the 1940s and 50s. I have wonderful memories!

A good friend of mine, now deceased, grew up in Valsetz. Kirk Mathews worked in radio and television news in Portland and later in Honolulu. He loved growing up there. He would have graduated from Valsetz high about 1968 or so. I greatly enjoyed this movie. Thanks to those who made it.

Wow! This brings back memories! I never lived there having grown up on the other side of Polk County but I still remember my first time driving into town. This would have been about 1966 or 67 in the fall. Some friends of mine had been hunting up in the Black Rock area west of Falls City and came down one of the back roads into Valsetz shortly after dark. We were pretty hungry and stopped at the cafe to have dinner. I recall the rough wooden floors, only because when we walked in and sat down the waitress came to our table with menus and a broom. She handed me the broom and told me I had tracked mud in and needed to clean it up! We ordered hamburgers which I think were the only thing on the menu and she asked if we wanted a salad with that. I said yes, and she said, Well we got Jello. I said, "What Kind?" And like I asked the dumbest question she'd heard all day she replied "Red!!" Anyway, subsequent to that I used to drive up there to go fishing on the Siletz west of the town often camping on the river. And a few times we'd stop and fish the lake on the way. Lost my best reel in that lake as I recall. I had a good friend who was a Polk County deputy sheriff assigned to Valsetz for a time. He used to tell me folks handled their own up there and law enforcement pretty much stayed out of it. It got to be known as a wild west kind of town in that regard. Long story short, the last time I drove up there I remember there was not a stick of wood left of the town and it was pretty much overgrown with weeds and sapling alder. The thing is there was a feeling of sadness that was palpable that hung over the area. Everything was gone. Oh, and I remember the town of Peedee the last poster mentioned. I had family there and spent a lot of time there as a kid.

@katmac2174

5 ай бұрын

My uncle Bill Millburn was a Deputy Sheriff there, is he the friend you remember?

I loved watching this. My uncle Bill Millburn worked there. He was my moms brother and we would drive up that scary and beautiful road often to see Bill, his wife Reba and my cousins Jerry and Russell. I also would stay with them in the summers . My favorite childhood memories are of my times I spent in Valsetz.

My dad went up there to get a postmark from the post office the last week before they shut it down for good, I believe I have it and a Valsetz token amongst the things I kept of his treasures.

Hey Ronan Just want to say thank you for a superb video and story ! I grew up in Woodburn and left for Alaska now back here in the northwest,as a kid i only had vague notion of where you lived if youever feel inclined i would really enjoy a personal tour of the place with you again WELL done!!!

I'd move out there today; right now, if I could. Well made, and presented.

Still a neat place to visit! It’s less than 20 miles from our house and we go there quite often to just get away from everyone and everything. Very peaceful but you can feel the sadness

A very well done film that I enjoyed. I was connected to the lumber industry starting in 1970-1993. At the time of the announcement I was working for a small wholesale distributor that specialized in clear VG fir as well as other species. We were all shocked when the announcement came out. I think it was a 20 or 25 anniversary of the closing and the Wife and I were at Spirit Mountain Casino eating and there was a group wearing T-shirts saying something about Valsetz and I went and spoke to them for a few minutes, nice conversation with them. To this day driving past former mill sites and think of the many trips I made to these mills that are nothing but a concrete slab with blackberry bushes growing through the cracks.

I just shared this Gem 💎 on Facebook. It deserves to be seen by all. Going home is never really possible as it will never look the same but this documentary was truly special. My heart breaks for the older close to retirement people to have the rug pulled out. I can’t imagine the fear the anger the unfairness of it all. Probably hoping something can be done. And to the kids. You sure had a lot even with a little At 18 I guess your starting new. Yet again it must have been a bit frightening and sad to know your never coming back. As there’s nothing to come back to. And life goes on doesn’t it. What a story this is. What a place. Thanks for making this it was very moving. We really need to never forget how great a nation we were. Before offshoring everything hopefully Covid will make our leaders more caring of a buck then the ones who toil for that buck. I often wonder. Yes a business decision. On paper it makes sense but the ones who decide are sheltered away from the ones who gave Their working lives to the company town. I hope you all have done ok after the shut down. Life is never what we expected. The twists the turns the joy and heartache but that’s life isn’t it. ?..

I remember seeing the guy finding the toy years ago on KZread somewhere . Excellent job to everyone that was a part of this . I wanted to always do a documentary on this but I don’t think I could ever do it justice like this was done. I’m going to humbly cross this one off my list and continue on in tornado alley . You guys absolutely nailed this story . I didn’t move to Oregon til 89 and saw two of my classmates at talmadge test up in class telling me the new kid the story and was always captivated about this. Since 89 I’ve wanted to do this…….thank you for your incredible work and told the story perfectly

Excellent job !

The people of Oregon just don’t no the Environmental disaster. They caused by removing the that lake. And it needs to be put back. I spent almost every weekend with my dad up there the amounts of wildlife in and around the lake was Astonishing. The Cutthroat trout German brown, bass, Steelhead coming up the river to lay eggs in the pond. Every bird you could think of in Oregon was there. The fish where huge lily pads every where two or three Creeks flowed into it. People of Oregon should be pissed off that was every allowed to be Drained. There’s truly not any spots in Oregon that was a magical as this place was. I been every where looking nothing even comes close. The people of Oregon deserve to get this restored back the way it was. And a better dam can be put in place where the old one was. With a really nice fish Latter This dam was not very big. Very small in size.

What a great story you told Ronan , i grew up in woodburn and only had the slightest inkling where the actual town was, but it always conjured up this wild wooly town that i wanted to be a part of, sadly this the fate of many logging,mining, and my own fishing community in alaska

Western Oregon University's on campus Dining Hall is named "Valsetz". We see Building names and streets and don't know the reason for the name. Thanks for posting. I love history!

So moving...thank you for sharing this...

Man, went to valley of the giants today with my wife and was navigating via topo maps on my phone and my eyes about popped out of my head when I realized that there used to be a town of this size up there. We stopped and walked one of the old roads towards what i assumed was a mill and it eventually dead ended. Got back into town and read up the whole History and was still in disbelief that there was literally hardly any sign of a city there even though it had been closed in the 80’s, watched this documentary and understand now. What Boise Cascade did was complete BS and the people of the town should have itleast got the option to buy back their houses at cost since boise cascade wrote off the entire town and settlement. What happened here is completely wrong, think the state should at minimum make a park and monument so the people have something to come back too. Ive explored ghost towns in eastern oregon that were shut down in the 30’s that had more left than Valsetz (cornucopia, or).

@bigislandbeach69

3 ай бұрын

Yep. And...what happened to the Lake??!!

Why wasn't the Oregonian, which documented the last four months of Valsetz, not credited with photos used in the film?

@gwengwen4535

7 ай бұрын

There is no legal requirement to do so with historical photos. Enjoy the show.

Sad story but a great documentary… today company’s hand out severance packages if you’ve only worked for the company for a short period.. I think now how I would manage at 61 to upend and have to relocate with no money no job .. shame on the company

Was your dad Bob Wheeler who was a boss in the mill?

Get rid of that mind breaking piano !