History of Pinehurst
Foundations in the Greensprings, 1908
In 1908, neighbors in the Green Springs area, about 20 miles east of Ashland, Oregon, came together to build a one-room schoolhouse along the Emigrant Trail. Named after nearby Beaver Creek, the humble building featured two-seater desks, a wood stove, a water bucket with dipper, and a blackboard. A narrow path led to a simple “one-holer†outhouse. Though later remodeled to meet state standards, the school retained its character as a locally built, community-rooted institution.
Growth, Industry, and the Lincoln Years
By 1920, the old stage road between Ashland and Klamath Falls had become a maintained highway, prompting the school board to construct a larger one-room building. It became known as Pinehurst School. Within a decade, when the Henry Lumber Company in nearby Lincoln brought 30 new students in grades one through eight, the school was relocated once more and renamed Lincoln School. The name has since reverted to Pinehurst, and the school remains at that site to this day.
Learning Within a National Monument
Throughout these changes, Pinehurst School has maintained its place within what is now the Cascade–Siskiyou National Monument, a biologically rich region where the Cascade and Siskiyou mountain ranges meet. The school sits along Highway 66, within the monument’s protected boundaries, and its location continues to shape its educational experiences.
For more than a century, Pinehurst School District 94 has served the Greensprings community as one of Oregon’s smallest unconsolidated districts. In the 2023–24 school year, it enrolled eight students in grades kindergarten through six. The district employed two instructors, with a student-to-teacher ratio of four to one. Older students attend middle and high school in Ashland through a tuition and transportation agreement.
The district’s educational model reflects its setting. Mornings focus on reading, writing, and math. Afternoons include physical education, art, music, science, social studies, and health/social emotional learning. Students receive enrichment instruction in culinary arts, STEAM, and mindfulness and movement, just to a name a few. The school works with agencies and organizations such as the Bureau of Land Management and Southern Oregon University to integrate environmental education and outdoor learning into its programming.
A Living Tradition of Rural Education
Pinehurst ranks in the top 30 percent of Oregon public schools, with especially strong student performance in reading and math, placing in the top 20 percent statewide. The district has earned Level 5 in reading growth and Level 4 in math growth. It is governed by a five-member elected board and funded through state and federal education programs, local property taxes, and support from the Pinehurst School Foundation.
More than 115 years after its founding, Pinehurst remains the educational and civic center of the Greensprings community, offering personalized, place-based learning in a setting few schools can match, surrounded by the forests, meadows, and ridgelines of the Cascade–Siskiyou National Monument.
