Small Economies Some of the scariest economic projections result when small towns are treated as self-contained economies. If, for instance, Frenchtown or Bonner, two small towns outside of Missoula, are treated as independent economies, the impact of potential layoffs at either their paperboard or wood products mills can only appear catastrophic. Those mills are the only major employers in the towns and mill employment levels are huge compared to the size of the towns. Similar things could be said about any number of small towns, for instance Pablo just south of Flathead Lake or Darby at the south end of the Bitterroot Valley.
Some economists working for the wood products industry regularly generate exactly such projections.
They told us that if National Forest timber harvests were cut by half or three-quarters relative to their past peak levels, forty to sixty percent of employment and income would be lost in various small mill towns. With most jobs and pay eliminated, it was easy to imagine imminent ghost town status for those towns. Fortunately for these communities, nothing of the sort has happened after National Forest timber harvests fell to near zero and have remained a fraction of what they once were. The ongoing economic vitality of these small towns, despite the loss of most of their previous National Forest timber harvest, has surprised many observers, including the residents of those towns. By the early 1980s that company ceased to exist, the smelter was gone, and most mining had stopped.