Last month, the Gazette-Times met with about 20 Harlan residents at Chapel of the Valley to talk about what was great about their rural Lincoln County community.

"Peace and quiet," said Laverne de Crevecoeur.

"You can sleep at night," said Jessie Cooper.

Other locals agreed. They said that the friendly and helpful spirit of neighbors also was a big plus for the Coast Range collection of homes.

"We have congestion every once in a while. Couple neighbors will meet on the road and stop to visit, and then the traffic will back up behind them," laughed Sterling Grant.

But Harlan's remote location also brings problems. The community literally is miles away from anyplace else, and that means being miles away from fire trucks or police in an emergency.

"We don't have any fire protection. That's always been a problem," said Betty Sutorius. Creating a fire department would be too expensive, and the population probably is too old to staff it, residents said.

Locals added that there had been burglaries of shops and other outbuildings. "It they would deputize somebody out here, that would be a big help," said Tim Grant, Sterling Grant's brother.

The power goes out frequently during storms, as trees downed by the wind fall against electrical lines.

Tourism also is a concern. Some visitors to the Big Elk Campground leave trash behind, and locals worry that the Corvallis to the Sea Trail will attract more tourists through their valley, bringing garbage and possibly even fires.

"Tell them we have the worst fishing, the worst hunting out here," said Tim Grant.

Salem is seen as a major problem, too, and not just for putting tight limits on land use. Locals said riparian zone restrictions on ranching and logging have hurt financially.

And they've resulted in more blackberries, which started growing like gangbusters in the 1980s.

While Harlan is out in the countryside, it isn't that far out. Locals get spotty cellular phone reception (some consider that a blessing), but they have satellite TV and high-speed Internet connections. And Corvallis is only a 45-minute drive away nowadays.

Kyle Odegard can be contacted at kyle.odegard@lee.net or 758-9523.