Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Westfir, OR

Westfir is a city in Lane County, Oregon, that had a population of 259 as of the 2020 census, living in 113 households, and it is located about 40 miles southeast of Eugene and about 4 miles west of Oakridge in the Willamette National Forest.

Westfir was incorporated in 1979, and it covers 0.32 square miles at an elevation of 1,070 feet.

The name Westfir was first used for the community in July 1923, and it came from the Western Lumber Company, which produced Douglas-fir lumber and had established Westfir as a company town.

A major customer of the Westfir mill was the Southern Pacific Railroad, which was building its line over Willamette Pass between Eugene and Klamath Falls in the 1920s and passing through Westfir, and the Westfir post office was established in November 1923.

The Western Lumber sawmill was later sold to the Westfir Lumber Company and in 1946 to the Edward Hines Lumber Company, which established a plywood mill in Westfir in 1952.

In 1977, Hines closed the mills and sold the entire town, including the water and sewer system, and because the town's new owners wanted the utilities in public ownership, local residents voted to incorporate in 1979, while mill operations finally closed in 1984 after a series of fires.

Oregon's longest existing covered bridge, the Office Bridge, was built across the North Fork Middle Fork Willamette River in 1944 to connect the Westfir Lumber Company mill to the main office, and it remains the city's best-known landmark.

Westfir has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, with warm but not hot and dry summers and no average monthly temperature above 71.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

As of the 2020 census, Westfir's median age was 54.8 years, with 28.6 percent of residents aged 65 or older, and all of its residents lived in rural areas.

Westfir students are served by the Oakridge School District, after the Westfir school district merged with the Oakridge school district in 1967 and Westfir Middle School closed in 2006.