Video: Businesses slow to return to Santiam Canyon after 2020 fires
Cities in the Santiam Canyon are facing challenges as they try to rebuild after the wildfires that caused devastation in 2020.
On summer weekends, Detroit and its namesake lake are jammed with visitors recreating in the sun or stopping on their drive on Highway 22 between Salem and Bend.
What tourists find in the city’s business district is one store and a half-dozen food carts on lots where businesses once thrived before being wiped out in the 2020 Labor Day wildfires.
Most of the homes destroyed in Detroit and Gates have been rebuilt, but businesses have been slow to return, with few in Detroit and none in Gates. Challenges like expensive septic and sewer systems, money, finding employees and workforce housing has been a hinderance to rebuild.
None of the restaurants or stores destroyed in Detroit’s business district have rebuilt.
“Zero. And that’s the problem,” said Jim Trett, Detroit’s mayor since 2017.
While Gates is on track to receive a communitywide sewer system in the next few years, there is no money for a similar one for Detroit, stalling economic development.
Marion County has looked at multiple solutions for how to solve the problem of having commercial septic systems for businesses in downtown Detroit. None have panned out.
Sandi Elwood purchased the lot where The Cedars restaurant had stood since 1952 with her husband, J.J. Hunsaker. She estimates a septic system will cost $500,000. She’s hoping grant money will help.
“We’re not giving up,” Elwood said.
Rebuilding of businesses after 2020 Labor Day wildfires in Gates could take years
Gates’ business district, where Canyon Cannabis and Oak Park Motel once stood, is empty.
The cannabis store was one of the most well-known businesses in Gates and located within sight of Highway 22.
The building on Central Street – Gates’ main business district – was a total loss.
Instead of rebuilding in Gates, owners Thorin Thacker and Roy Mitchell opted to put forth a ballot measure in 2021 to repeal Mill City’s prohibition on marijuana businesses. Voters approved it, and Thacker and Mitchell rebuilt their business in a building they owned in Mill City.
Thacker said he still sees potential in Gates.
“If we can get some other business entrepreneurs into town and start building on top of that, it’s going to do nothing but do good,” Gates Mayor Donald Mann said.
Rebuilding business district in Detroit hasn’t started five years after 2020 Labor Day wildfires
The business district in Detroit is as baron.
The only businesses left on Detroit Avenue are Mountain High Grocery and The Lodge at Detroit Lake, which lost many of its rooms in the fires.
Most of the food carts in Detroit are only there during the summer months.
Owners of property where businesses once stood now pay less in taxes than before the wildfires. Those owners are waiting to rebuild or are renting their empty lots to food carts. That means the city doesn’t get much money to attract new businesses or provide things for businesses rebuilding.
Another road block in Detroit is there is little workforce housing, which means most employees would have to live 20 miles away in Mill City or 35 miles away in Stayton.
“I do believe that if I could figure out how to employ a restaurant and a bar up there, I think it would be awesome,” Elwood said. “It would do well, no doubt.”
Elwood worked at The Cedars for 12 years and remembers it being open 24/7 in the summers.
“We never closed. There was that much business. And it’s there, it’s just I don’t know who I’m going to hire to work there,” Elwood said.
Majority of homes lost in 2020 Labor Day Fires have been rebuilt
The wildfires did a lot of damage to Detroit and Gates.
In Detroit, 268 buildings were destroyed or significantly damaged in the fires. That’s an estimated 90% of the city.
Trett said estimates are that five years later, 90% of homes in the city have been rebuilt.
Elwood said she brokered deals to sell fire damaged properties of former full-time Detroit residents. She said many people opted to move to cities like Stayton, Mill City and Lyons.
She said many people who built new homes on properties in the city did so to have second homes.
In Gates, 88 buildings were destroyed. The city has 208 current water customers, down from 223 before the wildfires. That means 73 home have been rebuilt or built since the wildfires.
Some previously undeveloped properties along the North Santiam River or Detroit Lake have had homes built on them since the wildfires.
That makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly how many homes were rebuilt.
Many people in Gates had to rely on government assistance from FEMA or other agencies to get the money they needed to rebuild. Some couldn’t afford to, even with help.
“It seems that the people that didn’t have insurance were in real bad shape,” said Mann, a longtime Gates resident who lost his home in the fire and became mayor in January. “The majority of people who did have insurance were underinsured.”
A 2024 law, Senate Bill 1545, reset property taxes for those who rebuilt with the same square footage they had pre-wildfires for primary residences. That means the cities receive a limited amount of taxes from the new construction.
Neither city receives large sums in property taxes. Detroit received $65,000 in 2024; Gates received $9,000.
“It’s ridiculously low,” Trett said. “And so we will gain some (property taxes) with houses that have gone in, but some of those are protected, at least for a while. We need the businesses back.”
Lack of sewer, septic system in Detroit, Gates constrain rebuilding
Septic and sewer systems have been a significant roadblock in rebuilding what was lost in the wildfires.
The state provided financial assistance to homeowners who needed to repair or replace their septic systems. It helped many people rebuild.
Marion County broke ground on a sewer treatment plant in Mill City to replace its existing one with $50 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds. The county is also applying to use $30 million in federal housing funds to extend that sewer system into Gates.
“That is numero uno, foundation building blocks for anything in this town as of right now,” Mann said.
Some property owners are opting to wait.
“As soon as we get that sewer in, that will look more of an opportunity to people,” Archer said.
Detroit has never had a sewer system. Money the state allocated in 2021 for sewer systems for both of the cities was only enough to fund the one in Gates. There is still no public money for a sewer system in Detroit.
Water in Detroit Lake will impact future of Detroit
Much of the economy in Detroit relies on tourism drawn from Detroit Lake. In 2021, that was what drew most people back to town, even before rebuilding had started.
A project to remove 162,000 cubic yards of dirt under the two marinas in Detroit was scheduled to start this fall and be completed in 2026. That project, which is designed to extend the boating season, was delayed to start in 2026 and may not be completed until 2028.
A plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to draw down Detroit Lake to historically low levels in 2026 could further impact recreation in the city.
“That lake is the only thing keeping things going,” Elwood said. “That lake is the reason why we have $500,000-plus homes up there.”
When will the rebuild of Gates and Detroit be complete?
Jerry Marr was back on his property in Gates on Sept. 10, 2020, three days after the wildfires, cleaning up the debris from his house.
He bought a manufactured home and moved into it in 2021, one of the first to move back.
The longtime Gates resident and former mayor said he expects it will take at least five more years to complete the rest of the town’s rebuild.
Not everyone agrees that Gates will be back to full strength that fast.
“Really, it breaks my heart to say this, but I just don’t see it,” Thacker said. “The want and the belief are two different things. I want Gates to come back because I’m a canyon resident and I love the canyon. But you know after the fires and the direction they’re going, I do not believe it’s sustainable.”
Trett said the early predictions were it would take 10 years for Gates and Detroit to rebuild. In that way, they are far ahead of schedule.
“We’re five years in, and we’re still ahead,” Trett said. “Those are the bumps, I think. I think we’ll get there.”
Bill Poehler covers Marion and Polk County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com
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