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Black Rock, Oregon

Coordinates: 44°52′15″N 123°29′46″W / 44.8709501°N 123.4962175°W / 44.8709501; -123.4962175
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Black Rock is an unincorporated community and former logging camp in Polk County, Oregon, United States.[1] It is located about three miles west of Falls City, in the Central Oregon Coast Range on the Little Luckiamute River.[2]

Background

Louis Gerlinger came to Polk County in 1903 and bought 7,000 acres of timberland that included the area of Black Rock.[3] In 1905, Gerlinger's son George T. Gerlinger bought an existing sawmill in nearby Dallas as well as the right-of-way to build a logging railroad into the Black Rock area.[3] He had previously built a logging railroad from Vancouver to Yacolt in Washington.[3]

History and demise

Black Rock, founded in 1905, became the western terminus of the Salem, Falls City and Western Railway from Dallas (later the Southern Pacific Railroad's Falls City branchline), which hauled timber into Dallas.[3][4] The locale was probably named for an exposed ledge of black shale.[4] Black Rock post office was established in 1906, with Louis Gerlinger as the first postmaster.[4][3] Some people who worked in the Black Rock area lived there, while other came from Falls City or Dallas.[3] As the town grew, it eventually had two stores, two saloons, a one-room schoolhouse, bunkhouses and cook houses for single men, and living quarters for families.[3] The town of Black Rock was platted with 22 blocks and lettered and numbered streets.[3] The population may have been as high as 600, although this may be an overestimate.[3]

The community was once the home of the sawmills of the Great Western Lumber Company and the Jay S. Hamilton Lumber Company.[5][6] The post office closed in 1943.[4] The tracks of the railroad branch were removed after World War II, and although the USGS classifies Black Rock as a populated place, today there is nothing at the former townsite.[1][4]

Mountain biking

The former George T. Gerlinger State Forest is nearby—it is now the site of a popular mountain biking area managed jointly by the Black Rock Mountain Bike Association and the Oregon Department of Forestry.[7][8] The Black Rock trails are the first sanctioned freeride area in the state.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b "Black Rock". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. November 28, 1980. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  2. ^ Oregon Atlas & Gazetteer (7th ed.). Yarmouth, Maine: DeLorme. 2008. p. 33. ISBN 0-89933-347-8.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i McArthur, Scott (May 15, 2013). "Story of Black Rock Logging Camp". Statesman-Journal. Salem, Oregon.
  4. ^ a b c d e McArthur, Lewis A.; McArthur, Lewis L. (2003) [1928]. Oregon Geographic Names (7th ed.). Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0875952772.
  5. ^ Alanen, Donald Mathew (2008). The Logger's Encyclopedia: A Road to the Past.
  6. ^ "Pacific Coast Mills, Jay S. Hamilton ad". The Timberman. 16 (7–12). Portland, Oregon: 52, 76. May 1915.
  7. ^ Johnston, James (February 24, 2012). "Mountain Bike Mecca". Eugene Weekly. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  8. ^ "About BRMBA". Blackrock Mountain Bike Association. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  9. ^ "Nearby Trails". Santiam Bicycle. Retrieved April 8, 2014.

44°52′15″N 123°29′46″W / 44.8709501°N 123.4962175°W / 44.8709501; -123.4962175

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