Laurelwood

I've summited Bald Peak before, so I don't quite need to reach the top, today. Instead, it's a mere 1100ft climb from the valley floor to the Laurelwood Rd turn off. Plenty of farms on either side of the road with expansive views the whole way up. I biked on a weekday in April and found the traffic to be light and manageable.

Once up top, I attached my GoPro and began my descent. Its a very steep and windy road to Laurelwood. Under these conditions, I'm usually faster than cars (advantages of not having two tons of momentum) but I wouldn't be able to stop for photos until the bottom.

The descent starts heavily wooded and ends in a pastoral community. Midway, there's a brief respite before the plummet starts anew. Check your brakes before starting (cars and cyclists). Pay attention, take your time and with luck, you'll land in Laurelwood.

Laurelwood was supposedly founded in the 1860's. Some sources claim as a Seventh Day Adventist community. That's a little hard for me to swallow, even with my limited local history expertise. 

For starters, the Adventists were officially founded in 1863, primarily in Michigan with only a few thousand congregants total. While many of WashCo's pioneer communities originated as wagon trains of a shared culture (Blooming = German Lutheran, Helvetia = Swiss, West Union = Baptist, Verboort = Dutch Catholic), it seems implausible that there'd be enough worshipers in Oregon to populate a whole village in a remote backwater. Oregon's state-wide chapter of the Seventh-day Adventists wasn't formed until 1877, further discrediting any religious claims to the village foundation.

1860's is also troublingly early. Wapato Lake was still nominally owned by the Atalfi in the 1850's and Gaston wasn't founded until the 1870s nor was there a post office. Bygone maps has two maps of Laurelwood, undated but between mid 1850s and 1880s. Both show exactly one building in present-day Laurelwood: the Walker residence, the people that made the original Donation Land Claim.

I don't doubt that the canyon was occupied in the 1860s, I do doubt that there was anything substantial enough to be a community. There's also no Laurels in Laurelwood. That's not atypical (looking at you, Cherry Grove and Larch Mountain). Oregon Geographic names postulates that the trees that once grew there were actually Pacific Madrones, which don't look much like laurels to me at all.

Regardless of when the original settlement was built and by whom, the Adventists opened the famed Laurelwood Academy in 1904. I don't know why they picked the spot. At that point, every major road and railway in the county was either built or under construction. The site was probably deliberately chosen for its fertile land and isolation. I don't know if there was already a large congregation.

The land was purchased from the Walkers (Since it was 50 years after the DLC, I assume the children or grandchildren. I could not find info about whether they were Adventists, themselves) and gradually expanded, topping out at hundreds of students in the 1980s. The community around it grew as well, likely with a mix of alumni, employees, and support staff. Industries supporting furniture manufacturing, machining, and food processing grew as well. 

After a gradual contraction in enrollment, the school relocated in 2007. Laurelwood Academy is now in Jasper, OR. I don't quite understand why the school foundered. Adventist worship has only grown. I speculate that the church was a victim of its own success. The religion is so popular now, resources are available much closer to home. A proper education no longer requires a boarding school.

The school buildings in Laurelwood were converted to a spiritual retreat for a time, but this, too, has shuttered. The grounds still look nice enough but after visiting every farm community in the county, this dormitory-style campus looks out of place among the fields and warehouses. Here's hoping the old grounds can find a new purpose.

Further on down the street is the Adventist church as well as the Adventist community center (LACE) which is in the former (Adventist) elementary school building. While the area may be in decline, the church still maintains a strong presence. 

There's a building that looks like it's a former gas station and store. The rest of the town is all single family homes and small farms. 

I take a side-trip up Hartley Rd for views of the whole village (see header image). Laurelwood is unincorporated, is not part of a census-designated place so defining population or borders is hand-wavy but most say about 500 people live here. They have a great view.