Stop #17 – Laurel Mill Mountain Bike Trails Sandy Beach Park

Laurel Mill Trailhead – Laurel Mill Mountain Bike Trails at Sandy Beach Park

Welcome to Ridgway Township Sandy Beach Park. We are standing at the Laurel Mill trailhead marker 17, sponsored by the Lumber Heritage Region and the Elk County Wilds Tourism Association. At this site, we will unveil yet another legacy and natural beauty embarking on an unforgettable journey through the Pennsylvania’s storied forest. Just outside historic Ridgway.

Tucked in the scenic hills will be the Laurel Mill Mountain bike Trail that offers an exciting adventure through a landscape rich in both natural beauty and historic significance evolution of sawmills, the legacy of loggers, and the vibrant communities that flourished alongside them. Tucked into the scenic hills surrounding Sandy Beach Park The Laurel Hill Mountain Bike Trail will offer riders an exciting adventure through a landscape rich and beauty, natural beauty and recreation ride, all within the historic significance to our lumber history.

The trail system winds through the rugged terrain of Laurel Mill, a site once home to a bustling sawmill and later a Civilian Conservation Corps Camp  #10 during the New Deal era of 1930’s.

The earliest activity of Laurel Mill site was in 1849 as a water powered sawmill. By the late 1800s, a small community rose that included a boarding house, blacksmith shop, a farm and numerous homes and school buildings.

CT Wheeler constructed a new mill on the site in 1879 and subsequently sold it to Henry Thayer in 1883. Thayers Mill was a modern facility with a circular saw capable of producing 60,000 board feet a day. Lumber was carted to Ridgway or guided down the difficult Clarion to market on the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh and beyond.

A Hyde-Thayer partnership was formed with the coming of the railroad era as a better way to ship the lumber. William H Hyde was the son of Joseph Smith Hyde, one of Ridgway’s earliest pioneers. The mill closed in 1909 with Laurel Mill becoming primarily a place for summer homes, swimming and picnics.

Protestant congregations were known to conduct baptisms along the banks of the Big Mill Creek at a place known as the “Baptism Rock.

During the height of the Great Depression in the 1930s, following the stock market crash of 1929, the Civilian Conservation Corp Camps were built on this site. The CC camps were proposed by President Franklin D Roosevelt and the “New Deal” as a work relief program for young men from unemployed families. The camps were operated by the army with reserve officers nationwide as camp directors. The army provided chaplains, contracted locally for groceries, fuel, equipment and medical services. Members of the camps wore uniforms, lived in wooden barracks, rising when the bugle sounded at 6:00 AM. The residents at the Laurel Mill Camp #10 were from Mississippi, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Georgia. They greatly contributed to the development of the Allegheny National Forest.

When World War II was declared in 1941, most CCC camps ended, except for the wildland firefighting, which was shifted onto the US military bases and eventually Congress voted to cut off all funding entirely in 1942. Even closed, the model for state agencies opened in 1970’s. The Conservation Corps are now state and local programs that engage primarily in the conservation of lands. Thus, the DCNR was born in PA.

Today, the park is maintained by the Ridgway Township and the trails maintained by the Allegheny Hike, Bike and Ski Association, as a passionate partnership group of volunteers dedicated to outdoor recreation and trail stewardship. With the full partnership of the Township, the Department of Conservation, Lumber Heritage Region and the Allegheny National Forest, all within the PA Wilds. The trailhead at Laurel Mill serves as a gateway to a network of single track paths that cater to riders of varying and skill levels for casual cyclists. To experience mountain bikers seeking a challenge. As you ride, you’ll transverse forested slopes, shaded hollows and remnants of the area’s lumbering past through interpretive signage, offering a blend of physical thrill, historical reflection. The trails are part of a larger vision to connect communities and showcase the outdoor recreational opportunities within the Lumber Heritage Region.