The Tillamook Burn

The board ends with a promise that a new forest will provide wood and paper products. It did, and the promise became a lawsuit. The burned and logged-over land came to the state from the counties under a 1941 deal that sends the counties two-thirds of the timber revenue. In 2016 Linn County sued for itself and other forest trust counties, arguing the state had cut too little since adding environmental goals in 1998. A jury awarded $1.1 billion in 2019. The Court of Appeals reversed it in 2022, and the Oregon Supreme Court declined to review.

What the plaque says

Oregon History The Tillamook Burn Sunset Springs Oregon's historic Tillamook forest fire of 1933 spread over 240,000 acres of forest land. Fires in 1939 and 1945 brought the total to 355,000 acres. Over 13 billion board feet of timber were killed. Devastation by these disastrous fires aroused Oregon voters to approve a bond issue for reforestation and protection of the burned area. Access roads were built and hazardous snags have been felled to improve forest protection. Many of these snags were sound; over seven billion board feet have been salvaged. Reforestation by planting and by aerial seeding includes Douglas fir, noble fir, Sitka spruce, western red cedar and others. A new forest will provide valuable wood and paper products, improved water storage, increased fish and wildlife and expanded outdoor recreation.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tillamook Creamery — 28 mi
  A farmer-owned cheese plant that exists because Tillamook Bay had no good way out, and whose logo is the schooner the settlers built to make one.
• Fort Clatsop — 31 mi
  The log post the Corps of Discovery named for its neighbors, and left to the Clatsop headman Coboway five days after stealing one of his people's canoes.

More markers nearby

• 41st Infantry Division — steps away