PHOTOS: Trinity County, Calif.: ‘Pot paradise’
Luke Winter, right, 19, gets a thumbs-up from a friend at the Family Dairy Store in Hayfork, Calif. He is looking for work as a marijuana cutter. The pot industry has brought jobs to Trinity County, where the unemployment rate is 15.9% in September. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
Schools Supt. Tom Barnett worries about his students, some of whom talk about farming pot now that logging jobs are gone. Behind him is a closed lumber mill in Hayfork, Calif. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
A horse grazes near a fence, background, used to hide a marijuana crop in Hayfork, Calif. Some growers use electric fences, razor wire and snarling dogs to protect their farms. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
The Hayfork High School football team, the Timberjacks, moved its halftime huddle to avoid the odor of marijuana smoke wafting over from nearby houses. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
Properties are hidden away from civilization, and medical pot farmers say the cool, sunny climate is conducive to cultivating cannabis. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
An antique truck remains in front of Frontier Village where at least two of the stores have shut down in Hayfork, Calif., where nearly a quarter of its 1,900 residents are poor. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
The defunct Hayfork Hotel sits desolate. Some locals say the marijuana industry is the only thing keeping the local economy going. But others are sick of the changes. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
