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The Infamous Black Bird Southern Oregon History, Revised



Rogue Valley Futures
Paleofutures: The future of the past--or the past of the future.


Letter Written in 1900.
    Mr. Editor:--How the following letter came into my possession, I leave you and your readers to conjecture. It may have come through a "medium" from the Spirit of Prophecy, but this I only throw out as a suggestion. Meanwhile, rest assured, Mr. Editor, that should I be favored with any more communications from the same source, they shall be transmitted to you without fail.
    Your friend and correspondent,
        ANNIE ELTON.
Washington City, Jan. 1900.           
    My Dear Friend: Writing to you as I now do, at the commencement of the twentieth century, I am naturally led to speak of the wonderful changes which have taken place within the last half century just passed. I remember very well when men were considered the lords of creation, when all the offices of honor and profit were in their hands. Women were at that time held in subjection by their haughty oppressors, and women's rights were almost unknown. Now, thank Heaven! all this is reversed; instead of lords we have ladies of creation.
    Our navies do not now consist of men of war--they are all women of war. Now, happily, a woman occupies our Presidential chair, while our halls of Congress are filled with a body of intelligent and influential females from all parts of the country. Formerly, we had professional men--now we have professional women.
    But without further preface, let me give you a sketch of Washington, which I am at present visiting. Everybody is praising the administration of Hon. Mrs. Betsey Jones, who has just assumed the reins of government. She has filled her cabinet with some of the most distinguished stateswomen in the country. Where for instance could she have found a better Secretary of War than Gen. Abigail Chase, of Massachusetts, who covered herself in glory in our late war with the Sandwich Islands.
    I went to the President's levee, a few evenings since. Among the crowd who were present I noticed Hon. Mrs. Jenkins, the distinguished Senator from the new state of Patagonia. The Russian Minister, Mrs. Orloff, had on a splendid fur cape, which attracted the attention of all the ladies present. I was sorry not to have seen the Secretary of State--but she sent word that her baby was sick, and she couldn't come!
    I called to see the Attorney General the other day, and found her husband setting the table for tea, and taking care of the children. He said his wife was so much occupied with the cares of office that she had but little leisure for her family.
    This morning arrived the steamer America, Captain Betty Martin, commander--bringing the latest news from Europe. It seems that the queen of Austria has issued a womandate, ordering all the men in her dominions to shave off their whiskers. In consequence of this very reasonable edict, an insurrection took place among the men, which, however, was soon quelled by the efforts of Gen. Polly Kosciusko.
    I heard, last Sunday, an eloquent sermon, from Rev. Sally Sprague, minister of the first church in this city. I understand it is to be published. I see by the papers that a man out West attempted to lecture upon men's rights, recently, in which he foolishly insisted that men had a right to vote. I was glad to learn that he was pelted from the stage by a volley of stones from the females, whose rights he had assailed. Poor man! he quite forgot that in the words of the poetess,
    "Times ain't now as they used to was been,
    Things ain't now as they used to was then."
        PAULINA PRY.
--[Am. Union
Oregon Weekly Times, Portland, April 16, 1853, page 1


    COMPRESSED AIR.--Some ancient savant writes: "The time is not far distant when every town of any importance will be supplied with compressed air, distributed all over it in pipes. It will be warm or cool, as the season may render most agreeable. It may be used to turn the grindstone for sharpening knives, etc., run the sewing machine, blow away dust and flies, for ventilation, and in workshops to turn the lathe, or stimulate the blacksmith's fire. Its general use in winter would tend to warm things up, and in summer to keep them cool."
Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, May 9, 1874, page 4


    TWO CENTURIES HENCE.--The following fancy pictures of what may be familiar enough two centuries hence is no more improbable on the face of it than our railway, electric telegraphs and the like would have seemed a century ago:
    Scene--Library in the house of elderly gent; somewhere in Australia. Old gent telegraphs to the kitchen, and waiter ascends in a balloon.
    Old Gent--John, fly over to Calcutta, and tell Mr. Johnson that I shall be very happy to have him sup with me. Never mind your coat now, but go.
    John leaves, and at the end of five minutes returns.
    John--Mr. Johnson says he will come; he has got to go to St. Petersburg for a moment, and then he will be here.
    Old Gent--Very well, John. Now start the machine for setting the table, and telegraph to my wife's room and tell her that Mr. Johnson is coming. Then brush up my balloon, for I have an engagement in London at twelve o'clock.
    John flies, and the old gentleman runs over to the West Indies to buy a fresh orange.
Democratic Times, Jacksonville, November 20, 1874, page 1


ROSEBURG IN 1901.
An Allegory, by B. S. Payne.
    On October 3, 1886, I took the train at Roseburg for a trip to the East. I left the beautiful little city of Roseburg enveloped in a fog, the Umpqua River nearly dry and a dead lethargy hanging over the place of whose future little was predicted in a business way. Its streets were muddy and out of repair, it seemed a very unpromising place to me the day I took the slow-going train for Portland when I paid $8 to ride two hundred miles. My stay in the East was protracted, but finally, on the death of a wealthy aunt, I was left with an income of ten thousand dollars a year and determined once more to visit the Pacific Coast and Roseburg, the home of my childhood. This place was then growing famous for its manufacturing interests, coal mines, and numerous other industries.
    It was a warm sultry morning on the 9th day of Sept. 1901, that I left New York, on the limited express, and coming by way of Chicago, Cheyenne and Eagle Rock to Boise City, thence by the Crater Lake and Coos Bay railroad in four days I was landed in Roseburg. The handsomely uniformed conductor cried "Roseburg! Through passengers remain seated; passengers for Portland, Vancouver and Sitka take the train on the north for San Francisco and southern points the train on the south." Hearing these words my mind was bewildered. A railroad to Sitka, Alaska and the O.&C.R.R. completed! Rousing myself from my seat in the luxurious parlor car, I alighted and found myself in an immense granite depot, twenty tracks running through it, uniformed railway officials directing the people whither they desired to go. Finally reaching the waiting room I inquired if this could possibly be the city of Roseburg. The official was courtly and pleasant with a genial face and appeared very busy. Twenty-five years had made a change, yet I thought I recognized the face of the official, and ventured to ask how long he had been there. He replied, "For thirty-five years. My name is Williams, known as Johnny Williams. I was station agent here when the station consisted of a 15x20-foot building, when one track could carry more than all the traffic offered and Roseburg was a town of 1000 inhabitants." I then asked him if he remembered a Jack Powers who had lived there twenty-five years ago. He said "Yes." I told him I was the man and he grasped me warmly by the hand and welcomed me warmly home again. I was invited into his private office. Passing through numerous offices filled with many busy clerks, I found myself in his luxuriously furnished room. "Sit down and I'll tell you of my doings since I last saw you. When you left twenty-five years ago I was about entering on my new project as a granger, having established a 'Prohi.' colony, which rapidly grew and prospered, and I was contented. So many dissensions among the 'Prohis' for office arose however that the colony broke up and each one looked out once more for himself alone. Upon the completion of the Crater Lake and Coos Bay R.R. I was offered the charge of the depot, accepted it, and here you find me not hard worked as in days gone by but enjoying life." I asked for a hotel, when he touched an electric bell, his colored waiter came and I was shown to his private carriage and driven to the Grand Pacific Hotel. I was surprised at its grandeur, occupying as it did the whole block, where Dr. Hoover's residence was in days gone by. I walked a stranger where once I knew everyone and was known. I looked upon the unfamiliar faces and longed for the sight of one I had once known. The once quiet town was now changed into a live, bustling city. Dray wagons, handsome carriages etc., rapidly passed the hotel. I decided to take a stroll determined once more if possible to grasp the hand of an old friend and find some familiar landmark. None appeared. I stopped in front of a large handsome building and found it was the post office. Making my way through the throng of people to the postmaster's private office I found James Cawlfield Esq., a courtly and pleasant gentleman, as postmaster. He failed to remember me, but asking about the prominent business houses he informed me that Asher Marks & Co., had their place not a block away. I betook myself thither and found a massive, five-story iron front building immense in its proportions. It was with difficulty I found the head of the firm; twenty-five years had made a change in him, yet his countenance was as genial and kindly as ever. He glanced at my card and recognition beamed upon his face and his grasp of my hand was the same old cordial grip as of yore. In reply to my query as to how all this wonderful change had been accomplished he said, "In the winter of '86-87 a fire broke out in the frame houses below my then humble store, and rapidly swept the town. If the citizens had raised $3000 for water works as had been suggested a few months previously, this catastrophe would have been averted. After this terrible fire, in which the greatest sufferers were the men who refused to give the water works their aid, it appeared as though the town would be a thing of the past. Eastern capitalists, however, examined the water power, prospective railways etc., and started a woolen mill where the grove used to be. They now employ 1000 men, boys and girls. This was the start. The city began to grow, streets were widened, and Jackson Street is now 100 feet wide. The railroad from the east via Crater Lake to Coos Bay was completed, and shops located here. They are across the river in that part once called 'West Roseburg.' A large tannery was the next in order to start, which now employs five hundred workmen, and the surrounding country furnishes all the hides. Rolling mills, foundries, nail works, machine shops, furnaces for the reduction of iron ore, one after another were rapidly built. The coal mines surrounding the city furnish excellent coal, and these beds are the principal source of supply for the whole coast. Iron ore is inexhaustible. The nickel and copper mines employ hundreds. These industries opened up so rapidly one after the other that Roseburgers wondered. Cable cars were run over the surrounding hills, the summits of which are as seats for the finest residences of the city. Roseburg now covers an area of ten square miles. Electric lights have taken the place of the old coal oil lamps. The old lanterns, which the inhabitants carried on dark nights, are preserved as relics. Instead of a close non-progressive manner of conducting the city's finances, sound liberal disbursements were made." Here a gentleman entered and was introduced as Bishop J. R. N. Bell, formerly editor of the Morning Review. Old acquaintanceship was renewed and he proposed showing me the rounds. The land office was visited but business there was very slow as all the desirable land for settlers was taken and it was thought the office would be closed in about a year. A gentlemen from the Dalles was in charge. The U.S. signal office was visited. The officer in charge was busy, so also were his three assistants. Numerous meteorological self-registering instruments filled the room. No change in the weather for the next forty-eight hours was reported. We turned our steps then to the U.S. bonded warehouse and custom house, from thence to the police court where his honor police judge C. Ball presided. The usual drunks, disorderlies etc., disposed of. A murderer was then tried, being ably defended by the Hon. Lafayette Lane, the most noted criminal lawyer of the coast. His brilliant speeches and quick and searching questions to the witnesses were listened to in breathless silence. From there we went to the county court house, a fine brown stone building, and in its rear were the massive walks surrounding the jail. Being interested in churches Bishop Bell first showed me the handsome cathedral and near this upon a rise of ground, where the old Roseburg reservoir was dug, a large well-fitted and pleasantly surrounded building which he informed me was the Central High School. Having formerly been interested very much in the school question, he informed me with pride of the increasing interest the people had taken in this question. The result being twelve well-appointed schools. He referred to the old wooden school building which was the only one when I resided there. The people got over their meager allowances for school property after many children had suffered from the want of room and overcrowding and several have been badly hurt by its partly falling to pieces one day. Now upon the old site, the gift of the generous donor and founder of the city Aaron Rose, a large brick building stood. The remaining important churches were mentioned and their spires pointed out. The St. George's Episcopal Church was the leading one in the place both in wealth and in number of communicants. It occupied the same ground that the humble frame building did twenty-five years ago. Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans and Baptists all had their commodious places of worship. I noticed in my stroll that the streets were of asphaltum, and the sidewalks artificial stone. The bishop also informed me that the schools were conducted upon the first-class educational basis. After graduating from the high school a normal school supported by the school board was open for those desiring to become teachers. More were then graduated from the normal than could be accommodated and only graduates from this school were eligible for teachers. The streets were all well graded and in the dry season were washed every morning by opening the fire plugs and allowing the water to rush out. The reservoir was situated upon the summit of Mt. Nebo, and there is sufficient force to throw water over the highest buildings. Beautiful parks surrounded the city and some within it of from five to ten acres. The police system of the city was mentioned as first class and I was introduced to a portly gentleman as he met us, who turned out to be Chief Langenberg of the force. He has the reputation of being a very conscientious chief and has his force under splendid discipline. I asked after Mr. Walter Hamilton, as I had looked in vain for his store, but was informed that he had left the retail business and at present had the largest wholesale house in that line on the coast. The bishop then with a lurking smile told me that the city boasted four military companies, Company A being under the command of Capt. Flint, and was said to be the finest on the coast, its medals and prizes being many for proficiency in drill maneuvers and marksmanship. There was also an armory, a fine two-story brick building. I remembered an effort made twenty-five years ago to organize a company but which had been defeated by the old cry of economy. But was told that the necessity for a company was felt during a time of riots and strikes among the thousands of working men, at which time over a million dollars worth of property had been destroyed and the county been obliged to pay the damages. Then they concluded it was cheaper to support military companies than to pay damages caused by riot.
Roseburg Review, December 24, 1886, page 4


ONE GREAT CITY
W. P. Dodge Opines that Medford and Central Point
Will Be One Great City--Eventually.
Electric Street Railways Will Connect Them--
Out of Chaos Will Come Peace Evermore.
    There seems to be a spirit of rivalry between the towns of Medford and Central Point. This should not be, and is not in accordance with the fitness of things. What Medford has gained in trade and population is not due to any natural advantages, but is chiefly due to the energy and perseverance of her citizens. Now it is not best to cry over spilt milk. What is good for Medford is certainly ditto for Central Point. If the enterprises now in contemplation are not interfered with, coupled with the mining industries already under headway in the valley, also not losing sight of the fruit industries which are coming to the front, there is surely cause for rejoicing. The enterprises and mineral resources are already attracting the attention of immigration and capital to our valley. This is not gossip, but is backed up by people coming from all parts of the East and South looking for homes and employment in this pleasant valley, away from the cold winters and blizzards of the East and the sultry summers of the South. Summing these things up one side and down the other and taking a bird's-eye view of the past and present achievements, and the future prospects, it does not take a Solomon to foresee a brilliant future for Medford and Central Point, and in fact the entire valley. Now all that is needed is to lay petty grievances aside and all put our shoulders to the wheel and the day will not be far distant when Medford and Central Point will be one continuous city with her electric lights and street railways for the benefit and happiness of her citizens. Why not? Scores of towns through the East have fulfilled this prophecy, if you choose to call it such, with less advantages than are in sight right here at present.
W. P. DODGE.        
Medford Mail, March 31, 1893, page 1


AMERICA IN 1993.
Guesses at the Future by Prophets of Our Day.
An Interesting Series of Papers by Eminent People of America.
    The Tidings this week begins the publication of an interesting series of papers by prominent writers and other prominent people, prepared in answer to questions which seek to get the views of thinkers and dreamers upon what America will be in 1993.
Ashland Tidings, February 17, 1893, page 2

A list of the articles, untranscribed here, in the
Tidings series:

Ashland Tidings, February 17, 1893, page 4:
"The Future of the Indians," Bill Nye
Predictions by T. V. Powderly
"From an Editor of the Twentieth Century," J. W. Sullivan
"American Drama," A. M. Palmer
"Ella Wheeler Wilcox Predicts the Future,"
Ashland Tidings, February 24, 1893, page 1:
"The Age of Aluminum," John Clark Ridpath
"The Development of the West," Secretary Noble, Secretary of the Interior
"Railway Development," VP E. Walter Webb
"Uses of Electricity," Charles Foster, Secretary of the Treasury
Ashland Tidings, February 24, 1893, page 4:
"A Century of Growth," T. DeWitt Talmage
"The White House of the Future," Elijah W. Halford
"Wonderful Commercial Developments," W. R. Grace
"Future Divorce Laws, " Miller, Attorney General
"The American Indian in 1993," Thomas J. Morgan, Commissioner of Indian Affairs
"Mrs. Frank Leslie Forecasts Iconoclasm"
"The Possibilities of Railroad Speed," George Westinghouse
"Comptroller Matthews Dreams of a Great Empire"
Ashland Tidings, March 3, 1893, page 1:
"300,000,000 Americans," Felix L. Oswald, M.D.
"Senator Peffer Is No Pessimist," W. A. Peffer
"The Future of Agriculture," J. M. Rusk, Secretary of Agriculture
"A Perfect Postal Service," Thomas L. James, former Postmaster General
"How They Will Dress in 1993," M. Quad (pseudonym)
Ashland Tidings, March 10, 1893, page 1:
"How the World Will Wag in 1993," Van Buren Denslow
"Chauncey M. Depew on the Future of Political Parties"
"The Destiny of the United States," William Eleroy Curtis
"Congressman Harter on Paternal Government," Michael D. Harter
Ashland Tidings, March 17, 1893, page 1:
"Will New York or Chicago Be the Greater in 1993?" John McGovern
"New York's Growth," Andrew H. Green
"Rev. Thomas Dixon's Mental Telescope Takes a Wide Sweep,"
"A Woman's View," Elizabeth Akers Allen
"Richard Harding Davis Declines"
"Moncure D. Conway on the Coming Theology"
Ashland Tidings, March 24. 1893, page 1:
"Gath Pleads for Federalism," George Alfred Townsend
"Kate Field Forecasts"
"Nym Crinkle on Literature and the Drama," A. C. Wheeler (Nym Crinkle)
"John Swinton's Views"
Ashland Tidings, March 31, 1893, page 1:
"A View of the Future," Erastus Wiman
"Bishop Newman on the Future of Methodism"
"John Wanamaker's Prediction"
"Christianity of the Future," David H. Green
"Richard Mansfield on the Drama of the Twentieth Century"
Ashland Tidings, April 7, 1893, page 1:
"The Growth of Specialties," Joseph Howard, Jr.
"Rafael Joseffy on Musical Development"
"Judge A. Dittenhoefer on Changes in the Legal Profession"
"The Production of Gems in the United States," George F. Kunz
"Senator Voorhees Thinks We Have Reached the Golden Mean"
"Commodore Van Santvoord on Inland Navigation"
Ashland Tidings, April 14, 1893, page 1:
"Ingalls Reads the Future," John J. Ingalls
"The Future of Cotton Manufacturing," M. C. D. Borden
"Joaquin Miller's Predictions"
"Warner Miller on the Nicaraguan Canal"
"From Chief Statistician S. G. Brock, of the Treasury Department"
"The Author of 'Helen's Babies' Sees a Rosy Future," John Haberton
"From the Author of 'The Story of a Country Town'," E. W. Howe
Ashland Tidings, April 21, 1893, page 1:
"A Forecast by Henry George" 
"Annie Besant on Human Development"
"Probable Developments of Electricity," J. J. Carty
"The Destiny of the Twentieth Century," E. J. Edwards
"The Science of Medicine in 1993," Edwin Checkley
Ashland Tidings, April 28, 1893, page 1:
"Mrs. Lease Sees as Rosy Future," Mary E. Lease
"Cities of the Next Century," Col. Albert D. Shaw
"Junius Henri Browne's Prediction"
"The Development of the South," Samuel Barton
"Professor David Swing's Guess"


TALENT IN 1993.
    The predictions for 1993 that have been going the rounds of the press have reference mainly to the large cities of the Union. One prophet lifts the veil of the future and sees Denver the largest city in 1993; another sees Chicago the largest.
    Of course New York and other cities have their friends among the prophets.
    It is presumable that each prediction favors the city in which the prophet is most interested. Now, ye editor of the NEWS is, of course, most interested in his own town. Nothing would suit us better than to read the horoscope of Talent and make a full report to our readers; but there being no astrologer doing business in this valley, we can do nothing in that line. But we are not discouraged.
    Spooks are always available. There are probably more spooks, good, bad and indifferent, to the cubic foot about Talent than can be found around any other town in Southern Oregon, not even excepting Ashland. Now, spooks are bashful creatures; they don't like to talk with people that are wide awake. It is necessary to enter into a full or semi-trance condition.
    If one has learned how to do this, his way is clear. Having taken lessons in the art of going to sleep at will, we resolved by this means to woo the sprites of the air and note the result. So, with note book in hand, we seat ourself in the one chair in our office, with our feet resting comfortably on a type case, draw the mantle of forgetfulness about us, close our eyes, become mentally "passive" and await developments. After the usual preliminaries we are controlled by a spook gentleman who announces himself as a noted prophet of old, who has been constantly perfecting his prophetic powers during the long centuries since he was doing business in that line on earth, and that he has got the art of reading the future down to so fine a point that he is sure of hitting it every time.
    Then we asked:
  "What will our Talent be  
  In nineteen-ninety-three?"
    Then in slow and measured phrase he gives us the following startling information, our pencil keeping pace with his words: --
    "Verily the hamlet of Talent hath a wonderful future. With my trained eyes I will peer through the mists of the century to come and thou shalt know the truth.
    "Knowest thou that the growth of a city dependeth upon the mighty men that dwell therein? Verily there are many valiant men in Talent and they have great possessions; but their desire lyeth not in the way of building cities. One would sell all that he hath and journey to a far country, yea to the city of Oakland; another selleth goods in the market place and maketh bacon of swine's flesh, yea the flesh that was condemned under the Law; the desire of another is to thresh out the grain that groweth in the valley; another putteth his shekels into banks and the town seeth them not. The mighty captain of the tribe of Populists looketh afar off for greater honors than the tribe may give unto him; another liveth the forlorn life of a bachelor and his desire is to return to a far country, yea the country of Faderland, and take unto himself a wife. I see two mighty men of your town, yea they are spiritual counselors, but they would not have the people place their affections on things of earth, even to the rearing of cities. A worker in wood also dwelleth in your town but I see that he laboreth in neighboring cities more than in his own. Your young men and maidens journey to the south and to the north and Talent knoweth them no more. Many there are that dwell in the country round about who might come out to the help of the city if the mighty men therein would lead the way. I see a man of large possession who dwelleth on the highway that leadeth towards Medford, but he has many trained dogs and his desire is to hunt the bear, the deer and the coon; yea he is a mighty hunter; there is none like him in the land. To the west I see a man who tilleth a large orchard where groweth the peach, the apple and the pear, but his chief desire is to delve into the earth for the gold that is the root of all evil. I see a highway that leadeth by a creek that is called Wagner. One of the dwellers thereon is, I should judge, a collector of taxes, for he constantly journeyeth throughout the country round about. The desire of many others that dwell nearby is to read the blasphemous writings that are found in certain books and papers and they have no part in the town. Verily none of these people putteth forth an effort to build up the city of Talent. But verily I make known unto thee that in a brief time a mighty man will journey to Talent. Yea he will become a leader. He will establish a great market place and people will come from the uttermost parts of the valley to exchange their produce for his wares. This mighty man will employ scribes to write the merits of Talent and publish the same in the NEWS and all other great newspapers of the land. Verily thousands of people from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, that read of the beauties of your town, journey hither, buy town lots and build houses upon them and dwell therein. Workers in wood and workers in iron, carvers of stone, makers of raiment, skilled workers in brass, teachers of schools, preachers of the gospel, doctors of medicine, and doctors of law; yea every trade and every profession is represented. A score of years pass and lo! and behold, Phoenix is absorbed in Talent. I peer into the future and note its marvelous growth. A century passes.
    "I see spread out before me a mighty city. It extendeth from beyond Ashland on the south to Medford on the north; yea these three are one and the length thereof is one score miles and the width thereof is one fourth of the length thereof.
    "But lo! the name is changed. The three cities unite, their names are blended, the great city is called TALASHFORD.
    "I behold massive buildings and lofty towers, extensive parks and lovely gardens. An electric railway runneth the length of the city. I see magnificent school buildings supplied with the most wonderful apparatus for use in teaching the young the beauties and wonders of the world around them. I see a mighty structure in the center of the city; yea it hath eight stories. On the front is an arch on which is written NEWS BUILDING. I look within. Wonderful to behold! Verily the NEWS is as large as the blanket that covereth a horse and it hath a million readers:"
    That quickly brought us out of our trance and the spook fled. But we sat and pondered over the wonderful disclosures, gazed long and musingly about our office and -- drew comparisons. 
Edward Robison, Talent News, April 15, 1893, page 3


    The introduction of bulletproof clothing as an offset to smokeless powder and improved two-mile guns will make the art of war one of pleasurable exhilaration, with very little danger. About the only people who will be injured by a war in the twentieth century will be overworked tailors and machinists.

Medford Mail,
April 21, 1893, page 2


OUR POSSIBILITIES.
Harry M. Ball Casts an Eye into the Very Probable Future
of the Great Rogue River Valley.
Farmers Plenty and Prosperous--Diversified Agricultural Pursuits and Big Cities Galore.
    EDITOR MEDFORD MAIL:--Your special edition of Dec. 1st came duly to hand, and I have read with interest your excellent and valuable write-up of the Rogue River country. It contains much information that would be greatly appreciated by, and valuable to, eastern persons who are dissatisfied with their present condition and surroundings, and by others who may contemplate emigrating to some portion of the Pacific coast. Every Jackson County reader of The Mail should do his share toward distributing information concerning the resources, climate, lands, etc. of the county by mailing one or more copies of this special edition to friends, acquaintances or others in the eastern states, and I feel that the individuals as well as the country would be benefited by such action.
    One of the present drawbacks to the success of the valley is too large an area of uncultivated land and too many farms of such a large area that they are only partially cultivated, and therefore not very profitable to the owners. If we could divert some of the large immigration that is sure to come to the coast within the next two years to your valley, you would soon see a great change--the farms would be greater in number and smaller in area, say in parcels of 40, 80 or 160 acres each, and much more thoroughly cultivated, thereby considerably increasing the yield per acre. Many more orchards would be set out by these newcomers, and the country now famous for its magnificent fruits would increase and extend that reputation manyfold. With this increased population, composed largely of sober, industrious, saving people, and your lands so largely and well cultivated, your towns would be the first to feel the effects of the good times that would follow and would rapidly increase in population too, as well as in manufactories, trade and wealth, which would place them in such a condition as would practically make them independent and affected very little by the panics and so-called "hard times" that are periodically felt in America. It would render all our lands, much of which is now unproductive, readily salable and at greatly increased values. Lands now selling at an average of from $20 to $30 per acre would soon appreciate to $50 and $100 per acre. This large increase in values would also be felt on the assessment rolls by reducing the rate of taxation by nearly one-half and dividing the whole tax among a greater number of taxpayers. A great many of the modern improvements would come to you by reason of this increased population and wealth, viz, good water works, affording water power for manufactories at a low cost, affording protection from conflagrations, water for flushing sewers, thus contributing to the sanitary condition of the towns, electric lights, and in time a system of interurban electric railways would no doubt pay. These latter would reach out in all directions, furnishing transportation for not only the people, but also for the grain and produce which could be hauled by the electric cheaper than by teams. Their supplies could also be cheaply taken out into the country from the shipping points on the Southern Pacific railroad. Such systems of railways are in operation in certain districts in the eastern states, and they are not only a great convenience to the public but pay handsome profits to their stockholders. To my mind there is now no portion of this northwest country that can offer so many substantial advantages to the intending emigrant as the Rogue River Valley. There he can find in abundance soil of the choicest and most fertile and at moderate prices; a climate unsurpassed except by California--the winters are not long and wet as on Puget Sound, nor extremely cold as in eastern Washington, Oregon and Idaho. You have a vast wealth in your timber on--and mineral within--your hills and mountains, and which a few years hence will be very important factors contributing to your prosperity. Hops, which contribute so largely to the wealth and prosperity of the rich and fertile valleys on Puget Sound, the Willamette River and in California, can without doubt be successfully raised in the Rogue River Valley. The profits of this industry, as you are doubtless aware, are quite large, often ranging from $100 to $500 per acre--the former is considered a low average profit. I hope to be able to interest some large growers in the establishment of an experimental hop farm, and if the experiment proves successful, you can look forward to the time when Jackson County will rank as a large producer of this valuable commodity. A large area of your lands are well adapted to producing alfalfa, of which three to six crops can be out per year and the yield brings from six to ten tons per acre, usually considered worth $4 to $5 per ton in the stack--it sells here readily at $14 per ton, baled. When it comes into general use it will largely supplant the native grasses, and enable the raising of a much larger number of fatter and sleeker cattle and hogs than are now raised, and which will find a ready market at good prices in the cities on Puget Sound and elsewhere. There are also many thousand acres of choice land on the foothills surrounding the valley that are especially adapted for the growing of fruits. These lands when in bearing orchards will be fully as productive as those immediately surrounding Ashland and brings the same large prices, viz, from $200 to $500 per acre. In fact, you have a glorious future before you, but in order to ensure the greatest measure of success, and that reasonably soon everyone must put their shoulder to the wheel of enterprise and progress.
    If you have 100 copies of your special edition to share, kindly send them, with bill, to yours, faithfully,
HARRY M. BALL.           
Medford Mail, December 22, 1893, page 2


How Will the Last Man Die.
    The opinions of the leading scientists of the world, concerning the probable fate of the last man, are as follows:
    1. The surface of the earth is slowly, but steadily, diminishing; all the landed portion will at last be submerged, and the last man will be drowned.
    2. The ice is gradually accumulating at the North Pole and slowly melting away at the South; eventually the earth's center of gravity will suddenly change, and the last man will be crushed by the rush of movables that will quickly glide over its surface.
    3. There is a retarding medium in space, causing a gradual loss of velocity in all of the planets. The earth, when her revolutions finally cease, will be drawn nearer and nearer to the sun until the last man will be literally roasted off the face of the globe.
    4. The amount of water on the earth's surface is slowly drying up; the last man will die begging for a drop of moisture with which to wet his parched tongue.
    5. A gigantic planet or comet is likely to tumble into the great sea of gas which surrounds our sun. In that event our great luminary would blaze up and burn the earth and all the other planets to cinders.
    6. Beginning with the year 3000 A.D., humanity will commence to retrograde, and by the end of the year 1,000,000 will be no larger and have no more intelligence than a plant louse. In that event there will be no "last man."
    7. The sun's fires will gradually burn out and the temperature cool in consequence; the earth's glacial zones will enlarge, driving shivering humanity towards the equator. At last the habitable space will lessen to nothing, and overcrowded humanity will be frozen in a heap.
Coos Bay News, August 1, 1894, page 2



A 20TH CENTURY CHURCH SERVICE.
Rev. Haberly Allows his Imagination a Little Scope
and Pictures a 20th Century Church Service.
    The twentieth-century church and its services will be largely assisted by electricity. There will be a strange atmosphere in the church from the moment one enters until he leaves it. The modern seats and pulpit and organ and choir will all give place to other objects. Instead of the usual pulpit there will be an office desk with an instrument upon it not unlike the keyboard of a typewriter. Back of this desk, and arranged across the whole breadth of the church will be boxes of varying sizes--the largest in the center, and each having a funnel [i.e., a loudspeaker] of burnished brass and gold. These also will vary in size. The chairs will be constructed so as to work automatically. and before each chair will be a sort of music stand upon which to place the hymn book. Within this stand, however, there will be a secret harp or musical instrument. On either side of the church there will be electric wires from which are suspended a row of small boxes, corresponding in number to the number of rows of seats in the church. There will be numerous other appliances, but for the sake of convenience and for the purpose of promoting a devotional spirit, these will be concealed from view.
    We will now attend a service in such an "improved church." It is a Sabbath morning, precisely at eleven o'clock, as we enter the church. We are surprised that no usher greets us at the door to show us a seat, but the moment we step inside we feel the floor moving with us. We steady ourselves, and look down to see what this motion means, when we find that we are whisked into our proper seat by a kind of sliding elevator; our seats also instinctively arrange themselves for us; our hat is gently lifted from our head, and ascends upward, where it apparently hangs to the ceiling. We learn afterward that the ushers had manipulated the proper electric keys, and had done us this kindly service, as they do for all worshipers.
    As we seat ourselves we hear the first peals of the organ, and we look to see who is the wonderful artist; but there is no living artist visible, and only a box with a great funnel stares us in the face. It is one of Edison's latest improved phonographs playing one of Clarence Eddy's masterpieces.
    We now for the first time notice that the man in a Prince Albert frock and with muttonchop whiskers is busily engaged with the keyboard on the writing desk. As the last notes of the organ voluntarily die away, we see him--evidently the pastor--touch a button, and the strains of "Old Hundred" peal forth. Another button is touched, and we feel the pressure of our seats--we involuntarily rise, when the voices, as of a great chorus and congregation burst upon our ears--but it is only a phonographic reproduction of some great congregation worshiping in the great London Tabernacle.
    We remain standing for the pastor's invocation, but the voice is not that of the man before us. From one of the side boxes issues the deep-toned voice of a well-known metropolitan preacher invoking the divine blessing. After being seated, the pastor again touches a key and instantly on the wall in sight of the entire congregation appears the number of the hymn in large figures, and to our surprise, when we turn to the book before us, it has been opened at the proper place for us. We join in the singing, but there is before us and all around us the sound of beautiful harps and stringed instruments playing the tune for us, so that no one, no matter how poor a singer, can get off the key or make a discord. These harps are automatically arranged in the book holder, and the pastor can regulate their tones by a skillful manipulation of the keys. If anyone sings well, he subdues the tones of the harp in their seat. If they have a poor ear for music, he presses the button with greater force, and the worshiper soon joins in the service with greatest pleasure and ease, because his confidence has been restored. Just as the last strain is reached the books begin to close and are quietly shut up when the photographic organ and choir cease playing and singing.
    We now expect to hear the pastor announce the lesson and read the Scripture, but instead he dexterously manipulates the keys, and we hear from another box the announcement, "John 15, first fifteen verses," and simultaneously there descends from above the pulpit platform a roll. This roll contains the proper passage, and we see the opening word, "I am the vine." Presently another voice, sounding suspiciously like that of Dr. Talmage, begins to read the passage, and as he reads the scroll turns, so that the words of Scripture are always in full view of the congregation.
    In a similar way the pastor presses another button, then spreads out his hands in the attitude of prayer, when from a different phonograph we hear the words and voice of Moody in prayer. After the prayer another sheet is let down before the pulpit, upon which are the announcements for the week; a touch of a button, and a clear, loud voice repeats the announcements, calling special attention to any that are of particular importance.
    The offering comes next, and as we look for the quartet that is singing the grand anthem we are unable to see any person, but learn afterward that it was a quartet of graduates from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music that had a half century before sung that anthem into the phonograph. But while we are musing and enjoying the music we become aware of a box approaching us from the side. We are not ready with our contribution and become somewhat embarrassed, but that box waits before us while we fumble about in our pockets for the proper change. When it has been placed in the box, it quietly moves on until it comes to the side of the church, where it is rested upon a large gilt pipe. When all the collection boxes have been deposited the pastor presses a button and all the boxes are overturned and their contents dumped into the large mouth-like receptacle at the end of the gilt pipe, and then the gentle jingle of the money can be heard as it passes down through the pipe. On looking toward the corner of the church a little door is noticed in the wall, with the inscription "Treasury." A strong lock fastens the door.
    Then comes the sermon, but the pastor sits back of his desk and works hard with his hands instead of with his brains, as at present, for his sermonograph speaks forth in most eloquent tones one of the masterpieces of a great pulpit orator. The benediction is pronounced in the same way, and as the audience is transferred to the doors, after shaking hands and greeting each other, the people go to some lockers, take out their electric roller skates, put them on their feet, and are rolled home at the rate of a mile a minute.
REV. A. HABERLY.       
Medford Mail, January 4, 1901, page 6


    What are the two changes in the personal appearance of people which would most surprise a Rip Van Winkle, opening his eyes after a sleep of a century? According to a recent observer, they would be the number of persons--young and old--who were wearing glasses, and the few of any age who were pitted with smallpox. A very agreeable exchange. Perhaps another century will teach man how to recover normal eyesight, as well as to save the smoothness of his skin.

Medford Mail, May 10, 1901, page 2


Tesla's Prediction of Future Inventions.
Present Methods Will Be Revolutionized.

    New York, Jan. 13.--Nikola Tesla, the "Wizard of Electricity," predicts the following wonderful inventions during the next decade.
    1. A system of wireless telegraphy by which a message can be sent clear around the world.
    2. Electrical production of ozone for sterilizing water to rid it of its many impurities.
    3. The manufacture of artificial food by oxidized oxygen.
    4. The flying machine will be a fact. It will not bring universal peace, as some suppose. Some nation will rule the air as well as the sea.
    5. Future developments will tend to diminish the number of individuals engaged in battle. This will bring into use a machine which can be operated by the fewest possible individuals.
    6. The perfection of the telautomaton, a machine having all its bodily movements controlled from a distance by wires. Telautomatics are applicable to any machine that moves on the land, in water or in the air.
    7. The transmission of electrical energy through the earth without a wire.
    8. A system to draw energy from the sun.
    9. The electrolytic process of extracting iron from ore and molding it into required forms without fuel consumption.
    10. The electrolytic manufacture of aluminum and its graduation extermination of copper and possibly iron.
    He also promises "wireless light," which will give artificial sunshine at midnight in these latitudes. On a recent occasion he darkened the windows of his laboratory in East Houston Street, New York City, turned on an electrical current, and in a moment the room was flooded with what Tesla calls "artificial sunshine." The light was diffused through a spiral of glass about eight inches high and six niches wide.
    The wonderful thing about the wireless lamp, if its claims are substantiated, is that it may be carried about from one part of the room to another, picked up and set down at will, just as one would carry a kerosene lamp around, and all the time there is not so much as a flicker of the light. This new light will be a blessed boon to humanity, especially in the sick room, for Mr. Tesla says it will have a quieting effect upon the nerves. Any light that will give us less tension in life in these strenuous times cannot fail to be a public benefaction of the first importance.
Medford Enquirer, January 18, 1902, page 1



In 1905 A.D.
    Mrs. Uptodate (to maid)--Marie, you need not set out the capsules for Mr. Uptodate's dinner. I have received a Marconigram that he will not be home until 10 o'clock, as his Santos-Dumontobile has had a breakdown.--Judge.
Medford Mail, November 7, 1902, page 5


The Kitchen as a Laboratory.
From the May Cosmopolitan.
    The Mistress of the Home of 1925 will be a chemist. She will be a trained scientist. She will regard her kitchen as a laboratory in which a thousand wonderful experiments will be tried. The idea that the kitchen is a place of drudgery, where only those enter who are forced by circumstances, will have disappeared, and there will remain only wonder that anyone could ever have been ignorant enough of the marvelous processes of science to have taken so little interest in the subject.
    The kitchen itself will disappear from the basement and from the home forever. In its place, adjoining the dining room, so that the transit from the fire to the table may occupy but a second's time, will be the "Household Laboratory." The mistress of the house and her daughters will find no more interesting period of the day than that which is spent in the well-lighted, well-ventilated, cleanly and comfortably arranged room given up to the constant surprises which science offers to those who will study with interest her wonders in the realm of combinations of food materials and the transformations brought about by varying degrees of heat.
Medford Mail, May 15, 1903, page 1



THE FUTURE OF THE VALLEY
A Glimpse of What Is in Store for Rogue River Valley.
    It has always been the dream of the progressive agriculturist to surround himself with all the comforts of city life and yet preserve intact the sturdy independence which has ever been the charm and the boast of the farmer's existence. Until recent years it has always been an iridescent dream. But it has come true in the Rogue River Valley. Here, harnessed to a turbine, the forces of nature embodied in running water have been transmitted to the dooryard of the farmer and now enable him to equip house, barn and workshop with electric lights, cheap and reliable power for pumping and the thousand and one purposes for which it is wanted on the farm, and now indeed it is a luxury to live in the country. The end is not yet; for the great traffic engendered by the growth of the fruit industry makes it imperative that a loop line belt electric railway be constructed in the immediate future, which will really make one teeming town of the entire valley, providing rapid interurban communication and bringing the productive foothill fruit belt practically to the overland depots.
    All over the continent there is a revulsion of sentiment back to the farm from the cityward movement of the last half century. But the reawakening of the agrarian instinct does not point the way back to the farm of our fathers. It is alien to the hardships and privations of two generations back which weaned our own age from the soil and built up our cities out of all proportion to the agricultural element. It is a movement which, appropriating the best of urban life, comes back to nature an educated child of nature, fitted to apply all the amenities of civilization to the natural life which man was intended to live. A virile, sentient being who can bring to the contest with the little tyrant of his fields all the knowledge of his own and former ages, intensified and specialized to meet modern requirements, a being who will rekindle in posterity the love of home which makes an English gentleman the "lord of his manor," and keeps the home in the family from father to son, from generation to generation.
    It is a happy thing for the American people that this revivifying of our love of country comes at a time when capital is free and ready to enlist in the work of surrounding country homes with the comforts and conveniences formerly impossible except for the urban masses. It is a particularly fortunate thing for the people of the Rogue River Valley that the capitalists consolidated into the Condor Water & Power Company were attracted to this wonderfully fertile spot by our glorious surroundings and balmy climate to inaugurate the work of proving what can be accomplished in the betterment of country life by the dissemination of power and light.
    With their initial units installed at Gold Ray in the lower valley, developing some six thousand horsepower, it was found that the valley was ready to use all this generated power at once, and with a long look ahead to the wants of a hundred years hence, the company seized upon the great falls at the head of the river, excavating and blasting out a high-line channel, carrying the waters of the river from a point above the falls for a distance of three miles, where the whole volume takes a sheer drop of five hundred feet back into the river channel. This will generate power sufficient to operate the Southern Pacific from the Siskiyous to Salem, and then some. At the present rate of development of Southern Oregon its mines, its towns, its timber, its horticultural and dairy interests, all this power will be made use of before a score of years goes by.
    Ere that time elapses, the urban population, with its increasing demands, will be ten times the present enumeration; every ten-acre tract in the valley will be the site of a handsome home, equipped with lights, tank towers and motors for pumping plants, and thousands of household and farm uses. Electric plants for charging batteries for automobiles and spray engines will be scattered through the valley. The very highways will be illuminated by electric lights.
    What is the foundation for these predictions? A recent writer on California's charms unhesitatingly states that three-fourths of the exorbitant charges made for the best California lands is attributable to "climate." In short that the cash value of climate in California is three times the value of her best lands. The Rogue River Valley has the best "California" climate on the coast, and we are not charging anything for it. There is no part of California which will approach the Rogue River Valley in the aggregate of attractions for the homeseeker, productiveness of soil, cheapness of good land, beauty of surroundings, abundance of water, good health and adaptability to extensive specialized farming, the modern farmer's portal to prosperity. How long will our lands, annually producing a greater net return than any part of California, be priced at one-tenth of the cost of California lands, where we share in California's best climate?
Medford Mail, March 9, 1906, page B1


A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE.
    Some fine morning you are going to awake from your slumber and find a new city--except for the name--right here where the thriving town of Medford stands, and you will be surprised to see the changes that have taken place while you were enjoying peaceful slumbers.
    You will turn to the southwest and see trains coming in from the copper belt, bringing the products of the Blue Ledge, Joe Bar and many other copper mines; you will look to the east and see train after train bearing away the product of the Medford coal mines; from the northeast you will see trains coming and going, bearing pleasure-seekers to Crater Lake and bringing in logs from the vast forests to mills and factories near our city; you will hear the hum of wires and the clang of bells as the electric cars speed through our city and away to nearby towns, carrying passengers and freight, and you will see those various railway lines bordered on either side by beautiful homes, well-kept orchards and gardens of vegetables and small fruits; you will see all around you fields of alfalfa, prosperous dairies, small orchards bringing good returns, and along the foothills and on the mountainside you will see vast tracts in vineyards, producing the choice grapes for the markets of the coast.
    You will look at these wonderful changes in the surroundings and then turn to find Medford a city of 20,000 inhabitants.
    This is no idle dream, but a forecast of what the future will bring.

Medford Mail,
April 5, 1907, page 4


    A. W. Sturgis--"I have only one kick coming and that is that I can't live fifty years longer and see what the progress of the world will be then. In the seventy-odd years that I have been on earth there have been many advances, and in the next fifty--well, I would like to see them, that's all. When I was a youngster, it was in the 'good old days' some people say they regret, but I don't. Then the wool was spun by hand in the country communities and wove by hand, also. The hum of the spinning wheel and the bang of the loom was continuous, and after she had woven the cloth the housewife must fashion them into clothing for her growing brood of boys and girls. It is true that cloth wore like iron. It had to. It wasn't possible to give a boy more than one suit in two years, and when he outgrew them they passed on to the next smallest and then on down. No, they can have the good old days those that want them, but I've been there, and I've had enough. Then we thought it was rapid transit if we got a paper published a hundred miles away in less than three or four days. Now we abuse the postal authorities, the railroads and everybody else we dare to when we don't have our daily [paper] from Portland or San Francisco, with all the happenings of the world, in the morning. Fifty years from now I figure the people will be as much farther ahead of us in conveniences as we are ahead of the people of fifty years ago. They will have means of transportation that will distance our fast trains as bad as they distance the old stage coach, means of communication that will make the telephone and telegraph seem slow, and they will read the history of this age with pity for our benighted ignorance and lack of knowledge of higher civilization, even as we read the history of the middle ages."
"Things Told on the Street," Medford Mail, November 15, 1907, page 6


TALENT AND ITS FUTURE
(Paper read by Miss Alberta Seaman at Talent School entertainment, May 27.)
    Talent is situated in the midst of a tract of undeveloped fruit land and young orchards, in a fertile valley just coming into fame for its apples, peaches and pears. When this undeveloped land is set to trees and the young orchards mature and bear fruit, this same town will become the business, educational and residence center for the fruitgrower and their employees in the vicinity. This prosperity is dependent in a way on the people who live here now, and they alone can decide whether this is to be a residence center for an industrious and live people or an unincorporated, uncared-for village, as it is today. It rests with the present inhabitants whether this community with wonderful yet undeveloped surroundings is to be a progressive city or a forlorn-looking village with a few dozen mossbacks living in dilapidated buildings and doing little business.
    Taking an optimistic view of the case, let us hope for a possible awakening in the future of the people in this vicinity and imagine a flourishing city with substantial brick or stone buildings replacing the temporary wooden ones which disfigure our streets, a city with well-paved highways, where we now stumble on the broken board sidewalks and tramp through the dust and mud of the well-worn paths made by a former generation. Let us hope that in 20 years we may look down wide streets at night and see a city brilliantly lighted by electric lights; a city filled with streetcars and automobiles; a city crowded with progressive people doing a legitimate business and having beautiful homes in the suburbs built in the picturesque glens that surround Talent on every side and only within a few minutes' car ride of the business center.
    Perhaps we may ride through a beautiful park along Bear Creek, through the business part of town and past Beeson's, Foss' and Holdridge's additions, where wonderful orchards once stood, or from North Talent's residence portion to Slingerman's orchard and never feel that one is truly out of Talent.
    To imagine all the changes that will have taken place would be impossible. It is reasonable to suppose that some of the most prominent men will have gone into some other business, retired or sold out. Undoubtedly G. A. Gardner will be living on his beautiful old homestead in eastern Oregon and when horses and carriages go out of use perhaps Jay Spitzer will erect a fine auto garage where his father's livery stable now stands. Where Wolters' grocery is located will be a large brick department store, several stories in height and employing many clerks. The Talent State Bank, with increased capital and separate building, will become most popular. Where Tom Scott's house recently burned down, Miss Linnie Hanscom will have a fashionable millinery parlor. The butcher shop will cover one whole lot, where it now occupies only one corner, and the proprietors, two burly butchers, one would not recognize as Frank and Bill Mason, for the fact that they will have grown unmistakably stout. It would be interesting to note that Kenneth Manning had added a department for repairing flying machines to the blacksmith shop he will then own; that Miss Alice Vandersluis had bought out the other partners in the grocery business which she had inherited from her father, and that Miss Marie was keeping a confectionery in the lower part of the Odd Fellows' hall, on the corner of what is the old Bell property.
    A great opera house will occupy what is now the unfenced premises of our miserable schoolhouse, and over the door this sign, "Slocum Opera House, Professor Orlene Powers, Manager." It is likely that Sophia Wolters, prima donna, and Ociola Carnahan, the noted mezzo soprano, and Chester Wolters, with his famous band, will be the principal attractions.
    The grammar, high school and agricultural college will be accommodated on the ground now owned by M. L. Alford. In the same neighborhood will be football and baseball grounds and a gymnasium, with facilities for basketball and other indoor sports.
    To get a good idea of the city one might ascend over it in an airship just as the sun went down and watch the workers from the orchards and the clerks, business men and other people from the city hurrying on the streetcars to their homes in the suburbs; only to return later in the evening to hear the famous Talent cornet band play at the theater or perhaps to the pleasant parks. As darkness settles over the city we descend to earth and bleak reality. Thus we will leave our dream of future greatness of this town for time to accomplish.
Medford Mail Tribune, June 5, 1910, page 10


PROF. TAYLOR SEES WOODVILLE'S FUTURE
    Prof. Thos. H. B. Taylor, of Woodville, who as a financier, capitalist and forecaster of future events has few equals and no superiors, says:
    That future events do cast their shadows before, and only a very short time will demonstrate that Grants Pass, the county seat of Josephine County, situated in the northern part of the great Rogue River Valley in Southern Oregon, is destined to be the greatest railroad and commercial center of the whole of Southern Oregon. Grants Pass is now, and will be, the one supply point for a great agricultural, fruit, mining and timber section of approximately 80 to 90 miles in area; and with its four railroads--one already built, two under construction, and the fourth sure to be built inside of a year--with a direct line of only 90 miles to the sea coast through an immense timber and mining region, and a through line to all eastern, northern and southern points--what more could be desired?
    The great irrigation system just recently acquired, and the street paving and many other municipal improvements, are more valuable and lasting achievements for Grants Pass; and of its future, in conjunction with its younger and smaller suburb, Woodville, we hardly hope to prophesy.
    Woodville, the young but rapidly growing metropolis of Evans Valley, is perhaps the most ideally located little city in the whole Rogue River country--a beautiful little sunny valley nestling at the foot of the Rogue River Mountains, bounded on one side by the swift, rolling Rogue River, and on the other by the sparkling mountain stream of Evans Creek. This is the home of the big red apple and Bartlett pear--no finer fruit belt in the state. The surrounding hills are streaked with the yellow metal and iron, copper, nickel, asbestos and coal abound. Several mines are already developed just outside of the city limits. Free gold is found in most all the streams, now, with all the wonderful fruit, gulches and in the gravel beds.
    The great Hill line is now coming from Eastern Oregon. This Hill main line will come down Rogue River, following the west side, out through Sams Valley and through what will be the "Ramsay Canyon cutoff" to where it will strike Upper Evans Creek. It will follow a double track with the projected big Minnesota logging road on the east side of Evans Creek to Woodville, where it will form a junction with the Southern Pacific.
    Here the Hill line will build an immense steel bridge across Rogue River and here the two great transcontinental railroad lines will build union yards, depot, machine shops, round house, etc., as it is an ideal location for a division point midway and near the great mountain chains. The Hill line will thence follow the south side of Rogue River to Grants Pass and on to the coast, namely, Crescent City.
    The Southern Pacific will abandon its old line near Myrtle Creek and come up the canyon by old Canyonville, and through what is called the "Jumpoff Joe cutoff," where it will strike Pleasant Creek, following down it to Wimer; it will cross Evans Creek and form a junction with the other two roads. There will be a three-track system to Woodville. The Southern Pacific will put in a double track system from Woodville to Grants Pass. They will simply run on into Grants Pass--same as now, only double that nine miles. The Southern Pacific will maintain a trolley line from Grants Pass to Myrtle Creek; then we will have also the electric road from Ashland in Grants Pass, which will make a junction of four railroads at Woodville. The big timber company will build an immense sawmill and planing and sash and door and box factory at Woodville. The city of Woodville have under consideration a city water and electric light system; power to be brought from Jumpoff Joe Creek, a beautiful pure stream of water right out of the snow mountains--a gravity system with approximately 900 feet pressure, with water sufficient to supply a city of 50,000 inhabitants, with wood of the best quality in unlimited quantities, and coal to be had just for the taking; and with all these great bodies and varieties of ore lying at our very feet--waiting only the magic hand of man to bring them to light--there's no doubt that immense smelters and ore-reducing stamp mills, etc., will soon be in operation right at this important railroad junction at Woodville on the Rogue, in a very short time.
    Little wonder that money men are quietly looking around Woodville.
    Grants Pass, with all these advantages, will have just one more railroad.
    This beauty stream--Rogue River--from Woodville to Grants Pass has no equal on the American continent, and who shall say how long it will be before this intervening space will be lined with palatial residences by eastern people seeking comfort, health and happiness in this wonderful climate--in the midst of the most ravishing mountain and river scenery--with an electric car line at their doors and where they can have strawberry shortcake for Thanksgiving; and where birds sing and flowers bloom in December.
Rogue River Courier, Grants Pass, March 10, 1911, page 8


SMALLEY'S PROPHECY.
    In 1870, George W. Smalley, celebrated war correspondent and journalist, spent several months in the Rogue River Valley. During the preceding years there had been some immigration to the valley, and a slight reaction had followed the expansion succeeding the Civil War period.
    One evening Mr. Smalley was at Woodville. There were a large number of pioneers and oldtimers gathered at the store, and the talk of the future was very pessimistic. It ran in this vein:
    "There are more people here now than the country can support--getting overcrowded--too many people coming in. What can we do with them all? The good old times have gone. The valley will go backward. The mines have played out--only a little can be raised on the land. There are no resources--nothing to support the population now here. Times are bad and likely to get worse."
    After listening to this kind of talk for some time, Mr. Smalley astonished the natives by the following prophecy:
    "I have traveled all over the world and have visited and written about nearly every civilized country, so I know what I am talking about.
    "The Rogue River Valley is destined to be one of the most populous districts in the world. You have many times the natural resources that districts in Europe or Asia have that sustain populations exceeding a million.
    "Some of you will live to see the day when this valley will be one large garden and orchard--dotted with costly mansions and cozy cottages, with a highly cultivated and intelligent class of people, all under irrigation, and every acre of land utilized. Your mountains are covered with forests that someday will be valuable and sprinkled with precious metals and forests and mines will supply payrolls and industries.
    "You do not realize what you have--you are so used to it. You do not comprehend the commercial value of your climate. You do not realize the wonderful fertility of your soil and the variety and wealth of your undeveloped resources. But some of you will someday."
    Over 40 years have passed since this prediction was made. Some of it is beginning to be realized. Some of us will still be alive when the balance of the prophecy comes true.
    In 1870 the valley had but a few thousand population--and the pioneers thought it was overdone. The same wail was heard from the mossback then that is heard today--and that will be heard when the population reaches a million.
    Next time you hear the pessimist, remember that he was howling along the same lines 40 years ago, and if he lives will still be howling 40 years hence.

Medford Mail Tribune, September 5, 1911, page 4


    There is on exhibition in the Commercial Club a drawing showing Medford in 1925. Skyscrapers form the skyline. The Medford Hotel, St. Mark's building, Garnett-Corey building, and other well-known structures grow a story or two in ten years. The public library shows no change. The new federal building is shown completed, with people rushing in, but the artist overdrew on his imagination, for no federal building was ever completed in ten years.

"Local and Personal," Medford Mail Tribune, April 8, 1914, page 2



THE WONDERFUL WIRELESS
Who Can Foretell What Further Discoveries May Reveal?
    The other day a naval officer of the wireless station at Arlington, Va., called the East Harbor station in Hawaii, 4,800 miles away. The call was at once answered, and the operator in Hawaii answering called the name of the officer who had made the first call, he recognizing the voice of a friend.
    Nikola Tesla, hearing of this, produced a copy of the Electrical World eleven years old, in which he had predicted this very thing.
    Then he said, in substance, that this was but a beginning, that in a little while longer men would talk to each other all around and through the earth, and there would be no mistake, they would send their own pictures along at the same time; that the earth was a vastly better conductor than the air and that there was nothing to prevent these conversations or the sending by a man of his picture with his message.
    This leads up to all kinds of speculation. The sun is perpetually throwing off electricity to his planets. If it is soon to be possible for man to talk as face to face with his fellow men on the other side of the earth, and have his voice recognized by the friend; if, further, he is going to be able to send his picture for purposes of identification, how long thereafter before man can strike with his voice a return current to the sun and draw an answer back? If a voice can hold its power for 4,600 miles, why not 93,000,000 miles?
    If he can send his picture at the same time, why cannot the gentleman (or lady) in the sun return his or her picture? That might be easier than to read the return message, for who knows what the language in the sun may be? Who knows but it may be Welsh or Russian? But the picture all could understand. How that picture would take in a movie show!
    What mysteries it would clear up, could we but get the truth!
    If a voice and picture can be sent, why not the picture of a grand opera prima donna and her voice? Or the music of a full orchestra as it is played up close to the place where music was born?
    The fire worshipers worshiped the sun as the source of all life and light, and it was a natural worship. Now that the sun's great agent has been put under partial control by men, who knows what it may be about to reveal to us?--Goodwin's Weekly.
Jacksonville Post,
October 23, 1915, page 1


10 Years from Today
    Doc Conroy flew to Union Creek Sunday afternoon in half a minute to attend to a man with the flu.
    A dozen or so veterans of the Great War from Jackson County are down from the Soldiers' Home attending the annual reunion.
    The Nash Hotel was fined $400 in the police court Tuesday for maintaining a weather vane that shows which way the wind does not blow. A number of women aviators have been fooled by this pioneer contraption.
    The Amalgamated Fruit Pickers of Jackson County are on a strike. They demand $0 an hour and all the Bosc pears.
    The police confiscated 96 barrels of hard cider Saturday, and no one will admit the ownership thereof. The penalty for having same in one's possession is life imprisonment. The law has been upheld by Chief Justice Gustavus Newbury of the supreme court.
    At the primary held last week, there was one Republican and one Democratic vote cast in Jackson County, which, by the way, is the entire vote of the two parties in the nation. It is thought that Bert Anderson and Colonel Mims are the guilty parties.
    The Bates boys installed electric shavers in their barber shop last week. Beginning August 15th, it is against the law to snatch whiskers by hand in this state.
    Floyd Hart, who will be remembered as the first man to fly an aeroplane in the valley, is now captain of a liner making tri-weekly trips to the moon.
Arthur Perry, "Ye Smudge Pot," Medford Mail Tribune, August 5, 1919, page 4   Eugene Ely was the first man to fly an airplane in the valley.


    Last Wednesday afternoon John Allen and family of Derby passed through our town. They had been to Medford in the forenoon and returned home. Owing to the rapid way we have now of traveling, the farmers who live twenty-five or thirty miles from "The Hub" can jump into their cars, spin out to Medford in the morning and attend to their business during the forenoon, eat dinner, go to the theater or picture show, or visit friends a few hours and go home in time to do their chores, and thus spend the day and take some comfort out of life, instead of the old routine of trudging over rough roads with a team, attending to business as fast as possible, not taking time for dinner, and hurrying home to try to do the chores before dark. And after we have the two million dollars invested on the roads that was voted on Friday applied to our county roads, why then it will be almost like flying in an aeroplane. I don't pretend to be a prophet or the son of a prophet, but will venture the prediction that then our country stores will be almost a thing of the past, and that 85 percent of the country people will go to the large towns and cities to do their trading.
A. C. Howlett, "Eagle Point Eaglets," Medford Mail Tribune, May 24, 1920, page 6


HERE'S IDEAS OF MEDFORD IN 1980
    Mental pictures of "Medford in 1980" are being received today at the Mail Tribune office in response to the contest announced Saturday in connection with the picture "Just Imagine," which opens this week at the Fox Craterian theatre. Tickets to the show are being given authors of all ideas published. Essays are limited to one paragraph, and the contest is open to everyone. The ideas of two locals with good imaginations who will attend the picture as guests of the Mail Tribune follow:
----
    Everybody will have a flat roof for the family plane to land. Medford will be a thriving city of 200,000 people. Speedy planes will carry mail to coast cities. For fast express on land we will have staunch cable cars carrying mail at tremendous speed. Medford will be an important commercial city. There will be rockets shooting mail to the eastern coast.
BRUCE HAMMOND,
205 Crater Lake Ave.
----
    Earl Fehl runs for mayor.
ASA BOYD,
221 Haven.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 8, 1930, page 3


Ideas of Medford in 1980 Show Wide Variance
Though All Predict Big Progress
    Ideas of what the city of Medford will be in 1980 are coming to the Mail Tribune office in increasing numbers today with the opening of the picture "Just Imagine" at the Fox Craterian theatre. Many improvements are forecast for southern Oregon, but they don't measure up to those suggested in the motion picture, a preview of which was attended by the press last night.
    What the world has become in "Just Imagine" isn't going to be revealed here, for much of the fun of the picture would be destroyed for the audience if all the inventions and feats of science were known in advance. In addition to being an interesting forecast of the world's next great exploration, "Just Imagine" is a rollicking comedy, which goes to prove that people will still be expected to have a sense of humor in 1980 and will continue to fall in love. Among the many lists of substitutes offered, the author of "Just Imagine" has failed to find a substitute for women.
    And, sad as the news may be to many people, the 18th amendment is still on the books, but it isn't enforced with any more rigor than in 1930.
    As to what Medford will be in 1980, here are some suggestions. The authors will attend the picture as guests of the Mail Tribune. Suggestions will be received during the picture's run at the Craterian and tickets given the authors of all ideas published.
----
    Medford in 1980 will have two railroads, one terminating on the coast. Automatic traffic signals on all corners of the business section. Many more dairy ranches in place of orchards and home sites between Central Point and Phoenix, making this territory all of Medford, with an electric car line from Grants Pass to Ashland.
AL PICHE.
----
    We will be a city of 100,000, with beautiful parks and homes. Our sawmills will be replaced by large manufacturing plants, electrically propelled. Providing Earl Fehl is never elected mayor.
HAROLD HARTZELL,
1716 East Main.
----
    Medford in 1980 will still be a thriving and business center, embracing as suburbs Jacksonville, Central Point and Phoenix. Commercial commodities will be moved by monorail or rocket planes. Weird-looking machines roam the orchards, picking the world's best fruits. Buildings hundreds of feet high will be of step design and very plain but symmetrical. Civilian transportation will be by autogyro or tiny streamlined cars. Wearing apparel will be extremely scanty and immoral according to present standards. Wave power from the coast, transmitted by radio, will furnish heat, power, light and refrigeration. Due to this cheap source of energy the immediate climate will be modified. Miles in the air, suspended and controlled by electromagnetic power, will be a gigantic sign, proclaiming for hundreds of miles around that THIS IS A GREAT COUNTRY.
GORDON E. TURNER,
102 Mistletoe St.
----
    The unemployed will have whittled up the Chamber of Commerce coal bin.
JACK L. MOSHER,
708 South Peach St.
----
    In 1980 Medford will be a thriving city, the result of coal, gold and fruit industries. There will be no autos on the streets. Everything will be "air planes." There will be landings on all buildings. The air planes will be like baby Austins, you can land them in your own back yard.
PATSY GOODMAN,
947 Murry St.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 9, 1930, page 4


Imaginations Run Riot As Craterian
Film Near End in Medford Showing
    The "Just Imagine" contest, sponsored by The Mail Tribune, closes tonight, a day in advance of the last showing of the picture at the Fox Craterian theatre, in order that the prize winners may receive their tickets tomorrow. All persons whose ideas are published are asked to call for tickets at this office.
    The prophecies of some of the people who will attend the picture as guests of The Mail Tribune follow:
----
    Medford in 1980.--The local Grange is sponsoring an enabling act to form power districts. The Great Northern, building a line from Klamath to Crescent City, made Central Point its terminal, and the latter town is now the leading city of the valley. Art Perry got off a really smart crack in "The Smudge Pot." Definite steps are being considered to enforce the eighteenth amendment. A steelhead was seen to enter the mouth of the Rogue, and a committee of sportsmen is awaiting its arrival at Bybee Bridge. Plans are under way to build on the Deuel property at Main and Bartlett. Medford athlete remains on eligibility list and makes good at Old Oregon.
MOORE HAMILTON.
----
    For the good of the local public health and the welfare of the nation generally, all young reporters will be forced to shave their mustaches in 1980.
R. A. KOPPES.
----
    Medford will be a great city in 1980, with the finest broadcasting station on the Pacific coast. Her wonderful pure water, golf courses, airports, parks and national recreational grounds [are] the envy of the world.
OLIVER ROGERS.
908 Queen Anne Ave.
----
    Medford in 1980 will be an aeronautical center of vast importance, being the central point between the Orient and the interior and Atlantic Seaboard of the United States. It will also be the central point between Alaska, other northern parts and South America. Roxy Ann, the slopes of which will be a beautiful residential district and city park, will be surmounted by a huge beacon, serving a threefold purpose. It gives forth a ray invisible from the ground that dispenses fog, thus greatly moderating the climate.
    This ray is visible from the air and acts as a powerful night beacon for small aircraft. Besides this ray the beacon produces visible beacon rays registering simply on the dash[board] of huge rocket-propelled commercial aircraft, guiding them for thousands of miles. This beacon will be one of the three most important on the Pacific coast.
GLENN SIMKINS.
542 So. Ivy Street.
----
    In 1980 I believe that a majority of our present illuminated hitching post and carnival stringer street lamps will have grown dim enough to convince our progressive citizens that something should be done to improve the business section of our city with a new and modern lighting system and remove the reputation we are fast acquiring of being the poorest-illuminated city in Oregon.
JNO. W. JOHNSON.
----
    I awoke at the end of 50 years and found all the people riding 'round Medford in baby blimps or driving Austin planes. I hailed an air taxi. The man handed me a belt, inside which was a parachute. I fastened it on and jumped to earth, landing near a large crowd of people who said that one of the world's last seven horses was due to arrive by air freight. I started down the street between skyscrapers and bumped into a robot, who was carrying packages for a lady. Everyone was dressed in aviator's attire. I wouldn't have recognized Medford except for the streetcarless track down Main Street.
PATSY HALL.
328 Edwards Street.
----
    Medford will be a city of 50,000 and a great shipbuilding center for Crescent City harbor. There will be a huge paper factory employing 3000 of the unemployed, situated northwest of Medford on Gore's property.
SHIRLEY GOODMAN.
947 Murrey St.
----
    Just imagine Ashland as a suburb of Medford in the gay nineteen-eighties, when women will be wearing short dresses again.
H. ARCHER.
506 Union St.
----
    News item in the Mail Tribune of 1980: Since the question has been settled regarding the site of the county courthouse proposed in 1930, work will begin at once. It is feared, however, that it will be difficult to find laborers enough to build the mighty structure, as there are more positions open to the 255,000 people of Medford than there are people to fill them.
ALICE PAHL.
304 S. Ivy.
----
    In 1980, with Prohibition just a memory in the dim past, Medford will still be drinking pure, crystal mountain water.
HELEN M. BROPHY.
Central Point, Ore.
----
    In 1980, Medford will be Oregon's largest terminal for all transcontinental air lines. Planes leaving Medford will be of the rocket and radio types. There will be gas-electric Pullman cars operating between Portland and Ashland, running at a rate of 80 to 90 miles an hour, and also a railroad will tunnel through Roxy Ann. Medford will be the "key" city to the whole Pacific Coast, and our population will be at least 200,000.
COLIN J. GOULD.
    1316 West Main St.
----
    I am wondering what my parents and friends of my childhood would say could they but see me as I go about day by day. My office is in that lovely 80-story building which you see to the south. There are three great centers to this city. We travel from one to the other in eight different tramways. Four are underground and four are highly elevated. Tonight I am going to dinner on the latest model of dirigibles out. And this is still "A Great Country."
MISS HELEN BUSH.
----
    In 1980 our city will be very beautiful. Parks and boulevards will be the rule. A botanical garden rivaling the famous Arnold Arboretum will draw tourists from all over the world. The orderly landscaping of home grounds will be as customary as the wiring of our houses for electricity. And flowers will bloom in every yard. Why not?
    This is a great country.
JESSIE A. SWIGART.
Medford Mail Tribune, December 10, 1930, page 3


Twenty Years from Now
APRIL 4, 1967
    The people of Central Point with sorrow today observed the tenth anniversary of the terrible disaster that happened to our neighboring city to the south, just ten years ago today. The horror of that disaster. The devastating power of that fragment of an atomic bomb. The chaos in this valley that resulted. All are indelibly engraved in the minds of everyone who lived in Central Point at the time.
    Plans are under way to construct a huge new civic stadium, north of Central Point. This stadium will be owned by the city, but will be leased to the local baseball club. Plans call for a seating capacity of 50,000. The local team finished second in the coast league last year, and the crowds could not be contained in the old ball grounds west of town.
    The state hospital at Camp White is no longer adequate and will have to be enlarged inside of the next year. This was the report of the state senate committee that investigated the hospital last week.
    A new car is reported to be on the market this year that will rise straight up in the air. If this car does what the manufacturer claims, all of the modern highways in the world will become obsolete in a few years. As yet none of these cars have been seen in Central Point.
Central Point American, April 3, 1947, page 2





Last revised April 30, 2022