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"Little did I know, 50 years later, I'd be the one tearing it down," says May, who spent his career here, mostly as environmental manager.
During boom times, this expanse of long, skinny buildings almost a million square feet hummed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, run by 500 workers who bought houses, raised children, shopped at the local hardware store and ate at local restaurants.
The most visible symbol of change, a 3-year-old Google data center, gleams in the background of the aluminum plant.
Golden Northwest Aluminum closed the smelter in 2000, crippled by rising power costs, and began demolition in 2007. All that's left is a few mounds of rebar and steel, waiting to be hauled. Resident cats outnumber May and his crew. And this time, everybody knows aluminum jobs won't return.
And, within a few months, the old aluminum property can be marketed to industrial companies. At 240 acres, it will be one of Oregon's largest available sites.
The Dalles has always been a crossroads.
But upheaval has dogged The Dalles. When the aluminum plant closed for two years in the mid-1980s, storefronts emptied and for-sale signs sprouted. Dan Durow, the community development director, calls that era "the economic hell." When the smelter got going again, so did The Dalles -- until aluminum died for good.
During past recessions, aluminum workers without high school diplomas lost $50,000-a-year jobs, says employment specialist Eric Proffitt, who grew up in The Dalles. Some were former classmates, with no way to replace their income.
"There is no aluminum industry to go back to," Proffitt says. "So where else can I transfer my skills?"
When Google discovered The Dalles several years ago drawn by reliable power and fiber connectivity, available land and a cooperative community people were quick to paint the company as savior or villain.
Hiring locally is a priority, says data center manager Dave Karlson, former technology director for the local education service district.
