Westfir, OR

Westfir is a Lane County city in the lower North Fork valley, about four miles west of Oakridge and near the southern edge of the Willamette National Forest. The 2020 census counted 259 residents. Westfir began as a Western Lumber Company mill town in the early twentieth century and incorporated in 1979. The Office Covered Bridge, built in 1944 to connect the mill with its main office, still spans the North Fork of the Middle Fork Willamette River. Its covered pedestrian walkway and 180-foot length make it a very specific piece of the town’s working history.

The mill burned in 1979, but the bridge and main office survived. Today Westfir’s city government, fire and EMS connections, and Oakridge School District tie the small city to the nearby valley community. Trails, forest roads, and river access draw the wider outdoor map around it. Westfir feels like a former company town that kept its bridge, its name, and a small civic life after the mill disappeared.