The Railroads & World Markets

"Two Spot."
Courtesy U.S. Forest Service.

The coming of the railroad in 1901 altered life in Cottage Grove. Suddenly the town became a transportation hub as the distance between it and other Willamette Basin settlements shortened. The railroad also enabled businesses to sell lumber to markets in California, an economic orientation that continues to the present.

Click on the thumbnail to view an Oregon and Southeastern Railroad map.

The timber industry enmeshed Cottage Grove in a web of national and international relationships that could make the town prosper or slump. Demands from the Californian gold rush sent lumber prices from $10 to $80 per thousand board feet. Conversely, the Great Depression sent lumber prices plummeting and Cottage Grove joined the nation in record unemployment rates. Several area mills closed for a year or more or operated with skeleton crews. An international economy also played a part in the timber decline of the 1980s. Mills in the Pacific Northwest shipped raw lumber to overseas markets rather than processing trees into boards, a pratice that decreased the number of mill jobs.

Carlton Woodard recalls the Great Depression.