If Small Towns Want to Survive, They Need a Plan B

To Fill Up the Storefronts Again, It Takes Talented, Enterprising Folks Who Aren’t Acting Alone

This country is littered with dying small towns that lacked a plan B, one they should have had in place before the mill shut down or the factory moved to Mexico.

Mount Shasta, California, and Ashland, Oregon did it right. Located in the California–Oregon border region where I live, they avoided economic devastation by having their survival plans well underway by the time their lumber mills began to shut down more than a half century ago.

Indeed, Mount Shasta was more than 100 years ahead of the curve thanks to a guy named …