-Chronicle photo

The defunct Columbia Pulp Facility at 1351 Highway 261, near Lyons Ferry, awaits a judge's order that its assets be sold at auction. The facility was the first new pulp mill built in the United States in over 35 years, and utilized a proprietary process to convert wheat straw to market pulp with bio-polymers as a marketable byproduct. After years of heralded false starts, construction began in September, 2017, operations were underway in March, 2020, when COVID-19 forced a shut down, and the plant restarted in May, 2021, only to be idled in February, 2022. The tarped straw was sited to show potential buyers that the facility was turn-key ready, if purchased.