April 21, 2022

Over the last several years, Boyd seems to be coming back from the dead after spending decades landing on lists of eastern Oregon ghost towns. Wallace Brothers Construction has set up shop, and this seems to have led to a rejuvenation of sorts, perhaps with more than one of the brothers putting down roots here. There also appears to be a bakery operating here now, the Chocolate Onion.

Tom Kloster, WyEast Blog: Mystery of the Desert Mounds

Soon you will make a dogleg turn to the right through the tiny community of Boyd, then reach the beautiful Adkisson Bridge... over Fifteenmile Creek. This historic 1925 structure was designed by Conde McCullough, the famed Oregon bridge engineer who designed most of the stunning bridges along the Oregon Coast Highway and several of the graceful bridge along the old scenic highway in the Columbia River Gorge. The nearby, historic Adkisson Mill completes the picturesque scene here. There’s a small pullout on the south side of the bridge.

https://wyeastblog.org/2020/06/21/mystery-of-the-desert-mounds (Accessed April 19, 2022)

Wikipedia: Boyd, Oregon

Boyd was a town in Wasco County, Oregon, United States, disincorporated in 1955, and now vacant except for a few abandoned homes, weathered outbuildings, and a derelict wooden grain elevator surrounded by the wheat fields, which still produce the grain that used to fill it. The site was recently bought and turned into farmland. The site of the former settlement is 9.5 miles (15.3 km) southeast of The Dalles, on the east side of U.S. Route 197 from which it is visible at a distance.

During the western migration, settlers traversing the Barlow Road would have passed through or near Boyd as early as 1847, but the earliest recorded community was established over a decade later, when gold was discovered near John Day in 1861, and a larger strike the next year in Canyon City, Oregon.

The spot near the banks of Fifteenmile Creek that would become the community of Boyd was already a stagecoach stop, with an inn, Eleven Mile House. The area became a busy one when as many as 150 miners, 200 pack animals, and ten to twelve freight wagons left The Dalles for Canyon City every day. Freight wagon and pack team traffic brought the need for wayfarer accommodations, a blacksmith, wheelwrights and livery stables, so a community developed around Eleven Mile House. It also served the growing number of homesteaders farming in the immediate vicinity.

In 1863, a schoolhouse was built on Fifteenmile Creek east of Boyd. The school building was also used for religious services. The community continued to grow. A flour mill was built, ultimately purchased by a T.P. Boyd and his four sons, after whom the town was to be named. The U.S. Government granted a post office under that name, which was located in the general store.

The community still increasing in size, a town plat was drawn in 1895, several businesses sprang up, and a Methodist church established, sharing a pastor with the congregation in Dufur, Oregon. The Boyd school became District #21.

The Great Southern Railroad began passing directly through town in 1905 and carrying passengers, freight, mail and wheat, and Boyd thrived until the 1923 construction of The Dalles – California Highway, now U.S. Route 197, bypassed the town. The following years were difficult for the little town. The Great Depression took its toll on local business, already suffering from low wheat prices and decreasing numbers of travelers whom those businesses served. The convenience of trips to nearby Dufur and The Dalles made merchant services in Boyd superfluous. The Post office was closed in 1952.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyd,_Oregon (Accessed: April 21, 2022)

Nancy Zopf, Oregon Encyclopedia: City of Boyd

By 1854, Daniel Bolton had settled in the area of Fifteenmile Creek and was raising wheat on the creek bottomland. Other settlers soon arrived and planted wheat in the uplands.

In the 1880s, George Barnett built a store on the bluff between the present-day bridge and the grain elevator. T.P. Boyd and his sons bought and operated a flour mill during those years, and a post office, named after the family, was established in 1884.

In 1889, Hank Southern bought the general store and moved it half a mile north. The town of Boyd developed at that location and was platted in 1895. A school was built and, later, a church that shared a minister with the Dufur Methodist Church.

The railroad line was abandoned in the 1930s, and the school closed in 1938. After World War II, the church was abandoned and the school was razed. The post office closed in 1952. In 2009, cherry orchards grow where the church and school stood.

https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/boyd_city_/#.YmG0ZdrMLtQ (Accessed April 21, 2022)

Links

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