High-tech jobs are not new in Oregon. There are nearly 100,000 of them around Portland. That is the state's largest city. The region is now known as the "Silicon Forest."
Prineville is three hours away from Portland. It is a small town of about 9,000 people. It is part of Crook County. Most jobs there used to be in lumber. Workers cut, or logged, trees. They trucked them to the county's five mills. Other workers there made them into boards. The wood was shipped around the nation.
By 1990, there were new rules against logging on federal land. Logging work went away. The mills began to close. The global recession hit. The county's jobless rate jumped to 20 percent. That was the highest in the state.
But things are getting better in Prineville. It is now having its own high-tech success.