Between the years 1884 and 1937, the company mill and lumber town of
Falk thrived in what is now the Headwaters Forest Reserve. In the late
1800s, Noah Falk and two other stakeholders became partners in the Elk
River Mill and Lumber Company. During this transitional time in logging
history, Falk was able to capitalize on the relatively inexpensive price
of land, cheap labor, and inexpensive logging technologies, such as the
band saw and the Dolbeer steam donkey. Isolated from Eureka and within
the backdrop of the industrial revolution, many changes and spikes in
local and immigrant populations created an intricate company town of 400
people. Between the 1940s and 1970s, Falk became a ghost town until the
vacant buildings eventually became part of the soil that now supports
the Headwaters Forest Reserve, managed by the Bureau of Land Management.