Icon Goes Dim: Timberline Lodge Lays Off 471 Employees Because of the Coronavirus

With new snow blanketing the Cascades, the historic lodge on Mt. Hood should be bustling. Instead, it’s all but closed.

Timberline Lodge. (mthoodterritory.com)
By Nigel Jaquiss

Timberline Lodge today joined the long parade of Oregon institutions announcing layoffs.

Gov. Kate Brown's "Stay Home, Stay Safe," order on March 23 closed ski resorts and followed an order six days earlier that closed restaurant dining rooms and banned gatherings of more than 25 people.

Those orders left little room for commercial activity at the 83-year-old lodge. Timberline's restaurants are closed except for takeout, and all but a few hotel rooms are closed, as well.

Today in a filing with the state, R.L.K. and Co., which operates Timberline under contract with the U.S. Forest Service, said it was laying off 471 workers, ranging from two accounting cashiers to a wine program manager, as well as 78 ski and snowboard instructors.

The lodge, which rose out of the Great Depression—it was a Works Progress Administration project—has endured hard times before, but never such a large loss of jobs.

Today's layoffs, first reported by The Oregonian, are part of a devastating period for the state's hospitality industry.

Related: More Than One-Third of  New Unemployment Claims Come From the Hospitality and Leisure Industry.

Timberline prepared an FAQ for skiers and others eager to get back on the mountain.

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