All roads lead to Vernonia

By KEN BILDERBACK
Special to mikepihllogging.com
There are two primary ways to approach Vernonia.

One is from the north. Along this route you’ll pass log trucks, clear cuts and tree farms on your way up from the Columbia River and into the very heart of Oregon timber country.  On this approach you’ll see Vernonia for what it is: a rough and tumble, hard-working little town with a rich history of logging.

The drive from Portland is different. Along this route you parallel the Banks-Vernonia Linear Trail and pass the shiny new Stub Stewart State Park. You still will see log trucks and chain saws, but you also see expensive mountain bikes, pampered horses and expensive RVs. From this approach you’ll see Vernonia for what it is: a beautiful, laid-back, fun-loving town rich with artists and a budding reputation as a movie and television backdrop.

These two very different images of Vernonia blend into one on hot summer days at Hawkins Park in the center of town. Townspeople put a dam across fast-moving Rock Creek for several months every summer to form a swimming hole.

Teenage lifeguards watch as the pool fills with happy families, diving, swimming or reclining on a soft inner tube. Yet up above this tranquil scene, caravans of log trucks rumble overhead on the aptly named Bridge Street, rolling to logging sites or to the mills in either direction.

Elsewhere in the park, families picnic and children play catch on a vast expanse of grass; an expanse that transforms every August into the Friendship Jamboree Logging Show, an exhibition of the skills that built the town.

The park is quiet in the winter, but Bridge Street remains a hub of activity. Throughout the day, friends gather at the Black Bear Coffee Company or cross paths at the Bridge Street Mini Mart. Visitors linger at the Grey Dawn Gallery, which features the nature photography of well-known former Vernonia resident Christopher Burkett and other local artists.

At lunch the tables start to fill at the Buckhorn Restaurant, an excellent place for a first-time visitor to start their tour of town. At the Buckhorn, you’ll hear conversations that start at one table and soon spread to others, as everyone on a cold winter day seems to know everyone else. Even strangers are drawn into the mix by the Buckhorn’s friendly owners, Donna and George Tice.

Donna is typically too busy in the kitchen to chat at lunch, but George somehow always manages to find time between taking orders to befriend everyone who ventures in. You’ll spot George immediately. At about 6 foot 7, he’s hard to miss. And plan to spend a little time if you strike up a conversation. This gregarious transplant from New Jersey can entertain you for hours as he talks about his beloved Vernonia.

For example, he can tell you about how Vernonia was transformed into Forks, Washington, for the recent hit movie “Twilight.”

If you’re a “Twilight” fan, turn right as you leave the Buckhorn and try to spot the building that was transformed into the police station for the movie. Or, if you’re an “Ax Men” fan, turn left and wander down to the Mini Mart made famous as a meeting point on the show. Either way, you’ll see the beauty that drew the “Twilight” producers to town and the rugged loggers that drew the “Ax Men” producers.

Vernonia’s logging history and modern-day reputation also come together at Anderson Park, the terminus of the Banks-Vernonia Linear Trail, a hiking, bicycling and horse-riding mecca built along the right-of-way of an abandoned logging railroad. You can ride your bike a few miles down to beautiful Stub Stewart State Park, which opened in 2008. If you’re more ambitious, you can ride the entire 21-mile route of the trail to the parking lot near Banks on Pihl Road, named for Mike Pihl’s family and the road on which he grew up.

But it certainly wasn’t a bicycle and quest for fun that brought Mike to Vernonia more than 25 years ago. Instead it was a pickup truck and the town’s reputation for rewarding hard work.

Even before graduating from high school in Banks and spending three years as a logger in Alaska, Mike knew Vernonia was his future home. “I guess I just always knew this is where I wanted to be,” Mike says now. “It was a working town and I wanted to be a part of it.”

Spend a little time in town, and you might want to become a part of it also, even if you have no interest in becoming a logger. Vernonia’s beauty and boundless recreational opportunities might do the trick just as well.

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Ken Bilderback is a freelance journalist in Gaston, Oregon. After 30 years in the newspaper industry, Ken is enjoying the rural life with his wife, Kris, raising chickens, helping out with the Gaston Fire District and writing on subjects as diverse as history and feline opthamology.