That was the caption of Walt Wiley’s feature story in the Superior California Section of the Sacramento Bee of November 10, 1974.  Wiley wrote how Westwood was taking charge of character and destiny, rather what had been dictated as a company town.

Wiley interviewed several people for the story, including Al Ceaglio, and the following is an excerpt:  “Al Ceaglo, 46, is a native of Westwood who returned after military service during the Korean War to work in the mill. He is today a resident sheriff’s deputy.

”As a mill employee, he said, he rented a company house—the house he now owns—for $16 a month, a fee that also paid for electricity, water, sewer, garbage service and even the telephone.

”When they closed the mill it really threw us. We didn’t know what we’d do,” he recalled. “And the whole town was run by steam from the mill’s boiler. The steam generated electricity and provided heat—even for some of the houses.

”He said when the mill closed he was among a few diehards who would just not leave, and there were old people, too, who had no place to go even if they’d wanted to leave.

”But I’m sure there were less than 1,000 here in those years right after the mill closed. Only three houses on my block had anyone living in them.

”No industry has come to replace the mill. But mill workers still commute—as did Ceaglio until he became a deputy—to jobs nearby in Chester and Susanville, and there is work in the woods for loggers.”

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