Celebrating 250 years of civic life in America, from Lyle to Washington D.C.

Imagine being told you have to leave your home, perhaps forever. You only have a couple of hours to pack, and you can only take what fits in your car.

Calista Christiansen, a seventh-grader from the Columbia River Gorge community of Lyle, didn’t have to imagine. That’s what happened to her, her family and her neighbors last summer when the Burdoin Fire burned through the community, destroying 14 h...