Life after minecraft

National Manufacturing Day, recently held on Oct. 5, is designed to get teenagers excited about going into manufacturing, whether entry level at 18 or later after a college degree.

This year, 270 school kids from Columbia County and west to the coast, descended on the Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center Research and Development (OMIC R&D) in Scappoose. The building is a former 18-wheeler repair shop which opened in 2008, but fizzled out because of the Great Recession. It sits next to Scappoose Sand & Gravel, accessed along Northeast Crown Zellerbach Logging Road, although there wasn't a tree in sight.

Outside it was all heavy industry — trucks driving through wheel washers and bulldozers moving stones around beside a rain-lashed quarry.

Click here to read the full article.