olneyoregon – Mikayle Stole

The ghost town of Jewell was so small I almost missed it. I parked a bit up the road from this sign (shown on the left) and walked back to what looked like an old store or gas station. The only two buildings along the highway I could find were abandoned and looked like they had been ravaged through a flood. Had this Coast Range area of the Nahalem River seen the same floods as Vernonia in 1996 and 2007? I could easily imagine this little market or gas station in its prime. A logging truck came noisily rambling down the road and parked on the other side of highway 202 from my trailer. I watched the logger in his suspenders check his load while I peered into an abandoned house.

Further north along the road I arrived in an area called the Jewell Meadows Wildlife Area and was delighted to come upon a park ranger showing animal skulls to some elementary-aged children. I didn’t see any elk, as this area is famous for, but informational kiosks at the rest area filled me in on what I was missing. I drove on further in this wildlife area and discovered many rest areas with picnic tables and bathrooms along the highway.