Saving Oakridge: A Possible Paradise Lost
A view of TV Butte, the proposed site of a new gravel quarry in Oakridge. Photo Courtesy of Save TV Butte
Nestled together in the misty mountains of Oregon’s Willamette National Forest are two small towns with a rich history and a recently revived and vibrant lifestyle. Visitors to Oakridge and Westfir come from near and far to experience the variety of outdoor recreations available in the area. And after enjoying a day of mountain biking, hiking, rafting, skiing, or just relaxing, visitors can tuck into a delicious meal and drinks at any one of each town’s unique eateries while taking in the magnificent mountain views the area has to offer.
Both towns have a history typical of westward movement. Oakridge was built on the site of an ancient Molalla Indian village situated in a basin-like valley shaped by five rivers. It was incorporated in the early 1900s and became a bustling logging and mill town that profited from the abundant forests that rose on all sides. Westfir was a typical “company town,” with nearly every home built by corporate mill owners and every enterprise company owned. Corporate-owned sawmills in both towns roared for decades until both were shut down in the 1990s. The local economy, heavily dependent on logging and milling, struggled, and many families were forced to abandon the area and look for work elsewhere. By the turn of the millennium, both communities were impoverished.
Fortunately, it didn’t take long for the magnificent forests and pristine rivers to attract the attention of outdoor recreationists and visitors of all sorts who readily found ways to enjoy the area’s commanding beauty. Breathtaking views are on offer from anywhere in both towns. Hundreds of miles of trails and flowing creeks, waterfalls, and winding riverways have called numerous people to the area. Stories abound of people who came across Oakridge/Westfir and felt such a strong connection to its beauty and serenity that they put down roots there. The deep and growing affection for the communities and commitment to the environment by those who moved here promoted new and robust economic growth.
That growth was fostered in particular when Oakridge became known not only as the mountain biking capital of the Pacific Northwest, but one of six gold-level ride centers in the world. Trails became famous and loved for their challenge to mountain bikers of all capabilities. Many biking events now occur regularly in the area, including those sponsored by Mountain Bike Oregon, Elevated Trail Racing, Trans Cascadia, and many more. Local touring companies such as Cog Wild, Cascades Outdoor Center, and Westfir Lodge and Mountain Market help bring visitors to the best areas to enjoy mountain biking, kayaking, and river rafting. The Oakridge Bike Shop & Willamette Mountain Mercantile offers a plethora of gear for any year-round outdoor enthusiast, especially mountain bikers. If that isn’t enough, a disk golf course is available in both towns for disk enthusiasts. Mini golf and traditional golf have venues too, including the venerable Circle Bar Golf Club.
Once off the trail or out of the water, adventurers can mosey into Uptown Oakridge and order up craft beer, cocktails, and tasty food while enjoying live music and comradery at a number of local establishments such as 3 Legged Crane Pub and Brewhouse, The Corner Bar, or Middle Fork Bistro. Both Oakridge and Westfir host multiple special events throughout the year for locals and tourists alike to enjoy. In addition to the mountain bike events, folks can choose to hang out at the three-day Bus Fair, which draws people from all over the country to show off their beautifully crafted “skoolies” and other tiny homes on wheels. At the Oakridge Tree Planning Festival, which has kicked off annually since 1953, and at the summer Keg & Cask Festival, crowds enjoy live music, dancing, locally produced brews and spirits, creative foods, and colorful vendors. Oakridge and Westfir know how to welcome everyone to the party!
After a long, hard period when the local economy was flat, the word finally got out and Oakridge and Westfir were suddenly on the map. The outdoor recreation economy is breathing in new life thanks to creative entrepreneurs, city boosterism, the resulting flood of visitors, a hearty Airbnb industry, the arrival of folks from out of the area who are pounding in stakes and committing to staying, and of course, media attention that has attracted crowds of visitors to the area. New hope and restoration have come to this historic landscape, and both communities are thriving on tourism that offers a serene and scenic getaway to folks from all over the world.
In spite of this sunny forecast, a shadow has been passing over the face of the Oakridge/Westfir boom, threatening the communities’ hard-won economic and environmental stability. On the east flank of Oakridge, a familiar mountain backdrop known to locals as TV Butte is in the crosshairs of developer Ed King, of King Estates Winery, and other investors. Together, calling their enterprise Old Hazeldell Quarry, LLC, they are trying to alter the zoning of TV Butte from “forested and unforested land” to “quarry land.” If rezoning is approved by Lane County, the group will sell to a quarry company and the entire mountain will be crushed into gravel. They will walk away from Oakridge with no stock in what happens to our beautiful town.
The quarry would be no small operation. It would run six days a week, roughly twelve hours a day, for thirty-five to fifty-five years. Situated above the town, the quarry and its processing center would be visible from Uptown eateries and other businesses. The serenity of that basin-shaped valley would echo with the thunderous sounds of blasting, continuous grinding of the industrial rock crusher, and gravel being dumped into trucks. An estimated eighty-six of those trucks would be roaring daily down two-lane Highway 58 and damaging the already-fragile infrastructure of the highly traveled and only roadway between Oakridge and Eugene.
A quarry of this magnitude, spewing invisible toxic silica dust into the air, would force major backward steps in air quality, putting citizens at risk of deadly silicosis, not to mention throwing away millions of dollars Lane County previously invested to improve Oakridge-Westfir air quality. Air quality will be sullied not only here in Oakridge/Westfir,as westbound gravel trucks will track silica dust throughout many other Highway 58 communities. Old Hazeldell’s plans to mitigate the dust on site would require pulling 5,000 gallons per day of the area’s already precious water resources from the earth—water that rural residents rely on for their wells and the Forest Service uses for essential fire mitigation.
The quarry would be located upstream from Oakridge and Westfir’s direct water sources and from the local salmon fish hatchery, all of which are upstream to the Willamette River, a mere half mile from the quarry site. Chemical and biological contaminants such as oil and silt and naturally occurring manganese, to name a few, could be introduced on a regular basis. Applicant Ed King and his lawyers claim that the magnitude of contaminated water can be contained on site and would not bleed into the groundwater from proposed ponds and berms. They maintain that blasting would not affect the current flow of groundwater nor introduce toxic manganese into city water sources, as has occurred in quarries elsewhere, such as in Prineville, Oregon. What’s more, the processing center will be situated a mere twenty-five feet from an old landfill said to contain hazardous and toxic materials. Constant vibrations from the continuously running rock crusher could destabilize that landfill. Any disruption or pollution-related issues that would ensue would fall on the city of Oakridge to clean up, an unimaginably costly nightmare.
On top of all of this, TV Butte is a longtime elk-calving area. In addition, local bird populations, including bald eagles and osprey, and other wildlife denizens such as wolves and bears, would be disrupted for generations. The blasting, excavating, and continuous truck traffic and machinery noise would affect their health and decimate populations, even in the outlying areas, as reports provided to the county have shown.
It is difficult to hold quarry companies to account because they are self-regulated after their first year of operation. Fines issued to Oregon quarries are often so minimal that many simply incorporate them into daily business expenses: It’s cheaper to pay a fine than to fix a problem in a timely manner. Clearly, a quarry operating right outside Oakridge would play Russian roulette with the surrounding environment and area economy.
Many groups in the area have voiced their opposition to the proposed zoning change, including the Oakridge and Westfir city councils, mayors, chambers of commerce, Oakridge Trails Alliance, Oakridge Air, and many more. Although the application has already been declined once by the county, the deep-pocketed multimillionaires continue to reapply until they get their way. On July 18, 2024, the Lane County Planning Commission unanimously voted their recommendation that the application be denied again. Now it is up to the county commissioners to stand up for this small slice of paradise. We need to ensure they understand the same negative impacts the planning commission described in their review, from the destruction of elk calving grounds, our air quality and water quality,, travel ways, scenic byways,local economy, and more. We hope the people of Lane County, of Oregon, and even the entire country will unite with Oakridge and Westfir in this fight for the environment and for the quality of life of citizens, outdoors enthusiasts, and visitors alike. We will not falter until Ed King agrees to alter the zoning request and no longer seeks to impose a mining quarry on the Oakridge and Westfir communities. Love where you live. Defend what you love. Live Oakridge Strong!
There are many ways you can help Save TV Butte.
Contact your local county representative at the Lane County Board of Commissioners at 541-682-4203 and tell them to say no to the proposed Old Hazeldell Quarry. You can also sign their online petition (no matter where you live) or reach out if you would like to assist with one of many tasks or events we are planning. You can also donate to their GoFundMe but visiting https://www.gofundme.com and searching “Save TV Butte.” Visit www.oakridgestrong.org to sign up to receive updates on coming events. If you would like to make a larger tax-deductible donation to their legal fund or have any additional questions about how to help, please reach Save TV Butte at either oakridgeoregonstrong@gmail.com or savetvbutte@gmail.com, and they’ll get back to you with additional details.
Life without a quarry in Oakridge looks like this. Photo courtesy of Save TV Butte