The community of Valsetz was one big family. The small lumber town set deep in Oregon’s coastal range west of Salem, was both an idyllic place for the children to play and the adults to work. The old growth forests that wreathed this lively niche in the pacific Northwest powered the engine of this single industry society. As one resident notes, “If the mill didn’t exist, the town wouldn’t exist.” Those words would prove to be far more prescient than the humble residents would have hoped.
Unlike their timber contemporaries, Valsetz was a company town, leaving it as vulnerable to the economic forces as it was to forces of nature.
Through the interviews of many who lived there emerges a portrait of an iconic Northwest way of life that is now long gone.
Showtimes and tickets here
AUG. 8, WED 7PM
