Researching the Wolf Laurel Story

Telling the story of the over half century of the Wolf Laurel development, and the story of the land before it became the community of Wolf Laurel entailed three years of research in courthouses, archives, newspapers, and interviews with those whose energy created the Wolf Laurel community.

We interviewed over seventy people: long-time residents of the Upper Laurel valleys; those who came to Wolf Laurel for a visit or a vacation and soon found themselves spending more and more time there until it became a central site of their life’s story; and business people who struggled to shape a successful enterprise that families would value.

We scoured the courthouses and archives of states and counties that recorded the evolving history for relevant twists and turns in the story in deeds, maps, and legal papers.

We visited the archival collections of local libraries and university archives to discover the recorded and unrecorded history of the area. Many businesses and individuals who had important roles in the social institutions and corporations opened their archives to add to the mix.

And overlaying it all were the chronicles of Wolf Laurel’s promise, struggles, and triumphs recorded in newspapers in six states.

This research was assembled into a mosaic of viewpoints telling multiple stories from which we came to understand the community as others saw it and talked about it.