Gerry Mikel has worked at the mill in Pilot Rock for longer than some of his coworkers have been alive. The 69-year-old tally person has worked there for a little more than 50 years, since June 1960.

When Mikel first came to the mill, it was called Pilot Rock Lumber Co. In 1962 it was bought by Georgia Pacific, which eventually changed to Louisiana Pacific. Then in 1996, Kinzua Resources bought the mill. The latest change came in 2009, when Boise Cascade bought the mill but kept the name as Kinzua Lumber.

Mikel moved to Pilot Rock at the age of eight with his parents in 1949. His father came to town to work at the mill. 

Right out of high school Mikel took his first job at U.S. Gypsum, a plant that once was next door to the mill. There the shifts changed often, so Mikel couldnt get a consistent schedule. When he was laid off because work had slowed down, Mikel applied at the mill, where he knew he would get a single shift. He liked this most because it meant he could take Jackie, his future wife, on regular dates.

 He started on the night shift back in 1960 there was a night shift as a chain puller. He pulled finished planks off the line for packaging.

Over the years Mikel worked many different jobs. But he settled on tally person, which he liked the most. He counts the boards and board feet in each load going out.

He and Jackie married in 1961. They bought a house in Pilot Rock in 1969. They raised a family with three kids.

The only time Mikel didnt work at the mill was between 1983 and 1985, when the workers went on strike against Louisiana Pacific.

The union said it would be a two-week strike, he said. That broke the union.

During those two years he worked as a mechanic at a car dealership in Pendleton. After the two years the mill started up again, this time without the union. Some of it wasnt easy. Everyone started out with a clean slate, Mikel said. His 23 years of seniority didnt count for anything. On the other hand, he got health insurance, something he didnt have when he worked at the dealership.

So why stay at a job for so long?

For starters, Mikel said, Its five minutes from home.

Being a hometown guy, Mikel also has watched a lot of things shrink the mill and the town.

When he was young he remembers a drug store, several restaurants and taverns, a grocery store, a post office, a movie house and an appliance store. That was all before Highway 395 connected Pilot Rock to Pendleton.

Once the highway came in, everyone preferred to go to the larger town. Today Pilot Rock still has a grocery store, hardware store, one restaurant, a gas station and a coffee stand.

At the mill, Mikel has seen smaller lumber come in. There once were two planers, but that overloaded things on the packaging end. Now there is just one.

Even so, he is confident in his work. Mostly because he has been doing it for so long.

If I?had to do it again, I dont think Id change it,?Mikel said.

Fifty years later, timber still rolls into the mill. The town continues to survive. And Mikel still comes to work.