Golf in Vernonia

Vernonia is a Columbia County community in the Coast Range foothills northwest of Portland, a timber town along the Nehalem River that has navigated the post-mill transition more gracefully than some of its peers. The Vernonia Lake, created as a millpond by the timber industry, is now a recreation asset. The surrounding forested hills, the Nehalem River corridor, and the relative quiet of this Coast Range community give Vernonia a distinctive character — close enough to Portland via Highway 47 to be accessible but genuinely rural in character. The golf course here serves the local community in a landscape defined by second-growth Douglas fir and the Nehalem watershed.