Ghost town of Bakeoven Oregon

Do you know anything about this town? Have you ever lived here? Please leave your recollections in the comments below!

11 Responses to “Ghost town of Bakeoven Oregon

  • Have tried to locate anything in existance for this community. I was told what was remaining was on private property. It is located on a descending bluff abouve the town of Maupin Oregon and I’m told it served as a baking stop for homesteaders, pioneers coming out on wagon trains. I found an abandoned ranch some 4-5- miles east of Bakeoven and seems that is all that remains in that area short of trespassing on private property.

    • Hello David! Thank you for stopping by. Bakeoven, at least what is left of it, is located on private property. The barn in the back has a sign on it that says Bakeoven, but I’m not sure if that is a historic building or not. My guess is that there was probably a Post Office and a General store at this location that served the local “community” which was likely spread out up to five miles away from this location.

      The cemetery is just under four miles away,at the end of a dead end road.

      The only story I know of the town is that a gentleman was hauling flour to the gold mine fields. His wagon broke down so he built an oven and started baking bread to sell to travelers. By the time he was done a small town had sprung up next to his oven.

      • Well, Bakeoven is connected to the Tunison family. There are several Tunison’s (my maiden name) buried in the cemetary. My aunt told me the barn was a once a school were my grandmother taught. My aunt also said the man who sold bread was from France. I will talk to my aunt and post any further info here. My grandmother taught here around 1910, coming from the Portland area. She married one of her students. They were the same age. He was a Tunison.

  • I picked up a little book out of the “Free” box in my local book shop. “Schoolmarms” By Helen Guyton Rees. It is about her mother Ada Bell who was a 16 year old teacher in Bakeoven beganing in 1897. It gives several family names of people in the town.

    • A few of Great aunts & uncles were born in Bakeoven. They were the Roopers.

  • The old Bakeoven schoolhouse sits in Shaniko. They turned it into a church.

    http://oregonfotos.com/2016/06/12/bakeoven-schoolhouse/

  • According to the exif, I took the pix’s in 2012.

  • Bakeoven is mentioned as the home of a secret agent training camp in an early 2020 novel, Deep State.

  • From “Following the Lost Meek Trail”, a tour guide by the Crook County Historical Society in 1995: “The Meek wagons arrived at this site on the evening of September 30, 1845. The people were getting very desperate as sickness was taking a toll. The wagons were struggling as Parker noted that they were coming to this site. 5 people are buried near here…Bakeoven received its name during the goldrush era in Canyon City in the early 1960s. An enterprising trader from The Dalles was heading to Canyon City with a pack train of flour. After crossing the Deschutes River, Indians drove off his horses in the night and left him with his supplies. He constructed a rough clay and stone bakeoven and made bread which he sold to the miners and prospectors going to the mines. The old oven was in existence for many years after the owner abandoned it. The site later became a stage stop on the road from The Dalles to Canyon City.”

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