Last Company Town to Fall

"Founded in 1863 by the Pacific Lumber Co., Scotia became "lumberjack heaven"-a complete community with a school, a church, a post office, family homes, and a power plant that provided electric light years before the White House had it. Now it is about to change forever. Marathon Asset Management, a Manhattan-based hedge fund that reluctantly inherited this industrial Eden in a 2008 bankruptcy case, is planning to put the entire town on the market this year."

The move could give more power to residents to own their homes, elect representatives and for the first time have control over the future of their community.