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The Infamous Black Bird Southern Oregon History, Revised


Jackson County 1901

JACKSON.
County Never Has Been Prosperous as It Is Now.
    There has never been a time in the history of Jackson County when all classes have been so prosperous as at the present. The mortgage indebtedness is less than at any time in the past 35 years, and a greater percentage of it was paid off last year than during any preceding years.
    There was great activity in the mines last year than at any time in the past 30 years. Many hydraulic enterprises were started, and many more are in contemplation for this year. The demand for mining property was never so great, and there were never so many large cash sales made in any one year as in 1900. The lighter placers have been almost wholly worked out, and those engaged in this branch of the industry have turned their attention to deep hydraulic mining. Unusual interest has been manifested in quartz the past year, and many promising veins have been discovered. More or less preliminary work was done on 300 or 400 ledges during the summer, and a number give promise of developing into permanent and valuable properties. There are now about 25 stamp mills in operation in the district, and a number more projected for the present year. The time is near at hand when the quartz branch of mining will surpass the placer. The output of 1900 is estimated at $400,000, and exceeds that of 1899 by $150,000.
    A number of important enterprises in connection with quartz are in progress. Among them may be mentioned the 20-stamp mill and cyanide plant of Opp Brothers, on Jackson Creek. Dr. C. R. Ray, of the old Swinden ledge, near Gold Hill, is installing a cyanide plant, and will soon have it completed and ready for operation. He is adding to his machinery with a view to operations on a larger scale. Dr. Ray and the Opp Brothers will employ a force of 50 men each. The Ashland mine, under the new ownership of the Montreal & Oregon Company, is undergoing steady development, with a force of 40 men. The company will add five stamps to its mill in Ashland. The new Humason custom mill, at Gold Hill, is regarded as one of the most perfect and complete in the district. Two new discoveries in quartz are creating considerable interest. One is near the base of old Gold Hill, the famous strike of 1860, and the other on the divide between Forest Creek and Applegate. Both give promise of large value. The recent quartz discoveries at Elk Creek bid fair to make this the most permanent and valuable quartz section of the district. The veins, like those at Bohemia, are large and base and the country volcanic as at Bohemia. The idea, originated in an early day, that this was only a pocket country, has been exploded by the deep levels of 300 to 900 feet, the ore maintaining its value to the greatest depth yet attained.
    The increasing demand and ready sale for good fruit for shipment have had a stimulating effect on this industry, and a number of new orchards have been put out and the older ones better pruned and cultivated, with more attention given to spraying. Leading fruit dealers estimate the export apple crop of 1900 at 225 carloads, an excess of 100 cars over any previous year. This represents a value, at the present price of 80 cents a box, of $108,000.
    The projected enterprises of greatest magnitude are the Gold Hill High Line and Medford ditches. The former will be 94 miles long, 1 feet [sic] wide on top, eight on the bottom and six deep. Its capacity will be 15,000 miner's inches. The estimated cost of construction is $700,000. Eleven thousand dollars has been expended in completing the surveys and clearing part of the right of way. The ditch will cover 20,000 acres of fertile foothill and light bottom lands specially adapted to fruit-growing, and which, without the ditch, are practically worthless except for timber and grazing. In addition, there will be available for mining about 6000 acres of mineral land which cannot be utilized without artificial water supply. With 400 feet fall at Gold Hill, the ditch may be continued down Rogue River indefinitely.
    The Medford ditch will be 53 miles long and have a capacity of 10,000 inches. The estimated cost of construction is $200,000. It will cover, approximately, 50,000 acres of valuable farming land and furnish water for domestic and power purposes at Medford and other points in the valley. Three thousand five hundred dollars has been expended in surveys. It is expected that work on both enterprises will be commenced in the spring.
    Improvements in the towns and valley during 1900 have been in keeping with the general prosperity. Several brick business houses and something like 75 dwellings were built in Ashland and vicinity during the year at a cost of $100,000. A number of brick houses and, perhaps, 60 dwellings were built in Medford, at a cost of nearly $100,000. Gold Hill, Talent and Eagle Point show many new buildings and improvements, and evidences of prosperity are observable all over the county.
    At least 300 families moved into the county in 1900--most of them people of means for investment. Of these, 100 should be credited to Ashland, 80 to Medford, and the remainder to other towns and sections of the county.
    Sales of livestock, horses, cattle, sheep, hogs and goats for the year aggregate $140,000. Fruit, hops, wool, lumber, pelts, poultry and manufactured articles, $180,000. Output of gold, $400,000.
    The income of the county for the year, aside from grain, hay, vegetable and general products of home consumption, may be set down, approximately, at $720,000.
    W. J. PLYMALE.
        Jacksonville.
Morning Oregonian, Portland, January 1, 1901, page 15


     The Gold Hill News will be published under the present management, in the interest of the people of Gold Hill. It will be partisan in neither politics nor business. The upbuilding of Gold Hill will be our effort and our aim. Southern Oregon has been overlooked as regards to climate, farming and mining. We will endeavor to attract the attention of the outside world. There are thousands of acres of the finest land awaiting the settler. There are hundreds of mines awaiting the fortunate prospector. The climate is the finest on earth.
    The timber in Jackson County would supply the entire United States for years.
    Coal has been found in different parts of the county.
    Petroleum has been found within one thousand yards of the Gold Hill depot.
    Placer mining has been the chief industry for fifty years. Jackson County has produced over twenty-five million dollars in gold in this time. With the completion of the High Line Ditch in the near future, the output from the placer mines will be immensely increased.
    There is sufficient power in Rogue River within two miles of Gold Hill to run all the machinery in Southern Oregon.
    There are many producing quartz mines within a short distance. The number has greatly increased this last year. Everything points to a great boom in quartz mining.
    The land produces almost everything that grows, and crops never fail, while living is so cheap in and around Gold Hill, there are opportunities not excelled anywhere for attaining a competence. The farmer does not have to work day and night for a living. A tornado will not destroy his crop. The sun will not burn it up, nor the hot air scorch the growing grain. He will neither freeze to death in the winter nor roast in the summer.
    The prospector can pursue his calling winter and summer, and not be snowed in six months in the year. There is enough mineral land in Southern Oregon to occupy the attention of all the prospectors in the United States. There are more producing gold mines in the vicinity of Gold Hill than near any other town in Oregon. The production from each mine is small, but in the aggregate the quantity is large and constantly increasing. We have no deep mines yet, but where depth has been gained, good results have followed. The Ashland and Kubli mines show increased richness with depth.
    The News will endeavor to give the news at first hand so that all will have pleasure in reading it. The News will keep Gold Hill before the people of the state and nation. The News will try to attract attention by a good clean paper, written well and printed well. We will give our patrons the best we know how. 
 Gold Hill News, January 26, 1901, page 4
GOLD HILL--PRESENT AND FUTURE.
    Ten years ago there were forty or fifty people in Gold Hill. Moonville, seven miles from here, was then a thriving village. Now Gold Hill has a population of five hundred, and from present indications that figure will be doubled within the next six months. Never has there been such activity; never have such numbers of people visited Gold Hill with a view to investing in mining claims or ranches.
    Gold Hill is the hub of the mining section of Southern Oregon, and miners, prospectors and mining men are only now beginning to realize the importance of the town. Depth is being gained in the mines, and with depth increased richness of ore follows every time. Little is heard now of this being a pocket country. This is one of the best mining sections on earth. Not one mine has been opened up to any depth but has shown increased value, proving the permanence of Southern Oregon as a mining country.
    Since deep mining has been begun about here more men have been employed in the mines and more land for ranches has been taken up; consequently the number of stores has increased. Ten years ago there were but two small stores; now there are six large ones, carrying complete lines of general merchandise. There are two hardware stores, two drug stores, three saloons, two restaurants, a good school, a church and two hotels.
    On the banks of Rogue River, just outside of the town, two stamp mills work night and day at custom work. There is a good 100-bbl. capacity flour mill near the town which is kept busy all the months of the year. No town is better situated, either for picturesqueness or business facilities. A great mining and farming country is near Gold Hill. There is not only gold to be mined, but copper, lead, mercury, asbestos, coal and iron. Nature has been kind with climate and natural advantages. The air is balmy and invigorating the year round. The ground will produce almost without being tilled. Cattle roam the ranges twelve months in the year. The prospector is in evidence summer and winter.
    There is timber enough for all purposes to last for ages. Now with all these natural advantages added to the activity, energy and push of the citizens of Gold Hill there is no reason why this town of five hundred souls should not have five thousand within the next two or three years.
    The Gold Hill mine, the Braden mine, the Kubli mine, the Nye mine, the Lucky Bart, the Dixie Queen and numerous other mines are often referred to in the papers of towns in Southern Oregon as being so many miles from Medford or Grants Pass. These mines, let it be known, are at or in the immediate vicinity of Gold Hill.
 Gold Hill News, February 9, 1901, page 4


    Medford, Oregon, is located in the Rogue River Valley, which is covered with great prune, pear, apple, peach and almond bearing orchards, some of which have two hundred acres of trees, the limbs of which are breaking with fruit. It is a land of roses and beautiful flowers, and of cultivated and educated people, refined and social, and keeping abreast of the times. She has many gold-producing mines surrounding her, and her fields produce an abundance of wheat, hay, corn, oats and garden products. The climate is a happy mean between the hot weather of Southern California and the cold winters of Washington. The currents which sweep the coast of Japan modifying and tempering her temperature, and beautiful mountains, some of which are snow-capped, sit round the valley, producing a magnificent panorama of scenery.
    Medford is the home of many old "Miami" [Indiana] people, among whom I met Frank Hutchison, Joseph Merley, my son-in-law, Clarence Hutchison, and my children, Harry and Mattie [Myers Hutchison]. Clarence has a large dry goods and general store, and Harry [Myers] has a jewelry store, both of whom are doing a nice business. Mr. Merley has a nice fruit farm, and with looking after that and preaching the gospel, his time is actively taken up.
Ira B. Myers, "Across the Continent," Peru Republican, Peru, Indiana, July 5, 1901, page 6
GOOD WORDS FOR SOUTHERN OREGON
Bloomfield, Iowa, Aug. 2, '01.
    Editor Mail:--I thought it good to write you a brief letter, giving some of my impressions and observations on a recent visit to that vicinity. We arrived at Medford on May 4th. We were greatly surprised to find it a beautiful town of two or three thousand inhabitants, and all grown up in the last seventeen years. Its situation and surroundings are beautiful and picturesque beyond any conception we had formed of it, being situated in the midst of a beautiful and fertile valley, with gently rounded knolls, foothills and abrupt, wooded mountains forming pleasing features of the landscape in various directions.
    The climate seems to be salubrious. According to the testimony of the inhabitants, the country is exceedingly healthful. If its merits in these respects were fully understood abroad, it would deserve attention as a health and pleasure resort equally with many places which have become famous as such.
    This seems to be an era of coal [and] oil discovery. Many new regions are attracting attention on account of these discoveries, and this region of Southern Oregon among the rest. On the farm which was the chief scene of our visit, the farm belonging to Mrs. Priscilla Evans and heirs, about five miles northeast of Medford, are strong indications of oil. On either side of a large knoll near Mrs. Evans' residence rise two springs, and we were told that the water flowing from these springs was often covered with oil to the thickness of a pane of window glass. Other places in the neighborhood showed indications of oil. Men were there while we were there, seeking to bond the land to prospect for oil.
    We greatly enjoyed our five weeks' visit in the vicinity of Medford. If we should be permitted to return there in two or three years, we may find the beauty and picturesqueness of the scene marred by oil wells scattered through this once-beautiful valley, and the neat and thriving town of Medford transformed into a great, bustling oil metropolis.
MRS. CATHERINE ETHELL.       
Medford Mail, August 16, 1901, page 2
 Bouquets for Southern Oregon.
From the Sherburn (Minn.) Advance.
    M. M. Jenkins is in receipt of a letter from his daughter, Miss Hope, who is visiting in the state of Oregon. We are permitted to publish a portion of the letter regarding her observations, along the line of fruit raising and other lines of interest to people in Minnesota. Under date of Oct. 12th, she writes from Medford (Oregon):
    "I have been here just a week, and the more I see of the country the better I like it, and if half they tell me is true, it certainly is a very delightful country. Thursday we drove to Jacksonville, the county seat. Coming back we came by what is known as the mountain road, but I would never have known it had I not been told. Both going and coming we passed such prosperous-looking places, and so many of them have large apple, peach, pear and prune orchards. The valley has gone quite extensively into the prune raising, and they say hundreds of bushels are going to waste for the want of dryers. Land is rising in value quite rapidly around here. Alfalfa seems to be the most profitable crop. After getting the land once seeded down it does not have to be seeded again for ten years. Three crops can be cut from it during the season, and average from four to six tons to the acre and brings from $8 to $10 per ton. As near as I can figure it, this will be the home of farmer millionaires in a very few years. The greatest drawback to the valley is the Southern Pacific railway. The freight rates are simply outrageous. There is a railroad here that has never experienced any trouble with strikes. It runs from here to Jacksonville, a distance of five miles, and is owned and operated by a man and his son. The rolling stock consists of an engine, a passenger and baggage car combined and one freight car. They make two trips a day and the road is well patronized. One thing which I cannot understand out here is that you can see anything off fifteen miles and it won't look more than half a mile distant."
 Medford Mail, November 8, 1901, page 2
All Kinds of Questions Are Asked.
    People in the East and South are always asking all sorts of questions regarding Oregon. These questions are ofttimes too ridiculous to be taken seriously or answered intelligently. Below is a list received this week by one of our citizens, which we print because of the fact that there are several new ones, and someone who may receive this paper in the East may want to add them to their list of foolish inquiry. There are some of the questions, however, which are such as any prospective locator would want to know, and these we will endeavor to answer. Here is the list:
    "Is the climate mild?" Answer:--Yes. There is probably not a country anywhere with a more even temperature than here. The climate in Southern Oregon is a very agreeable medium between the extreme wet and fog of northern Oregon and Washington and the warm, dry climate of California. Here the weather is neither too hot nor too cold, or neither too dry nor too wet--just right for all purposes.
    "What about the winter; is it long or short?" Answer:--We in reality have no winter, as the term is understood in the East. From the middle of November to April we have frequent showers of rain--from one to two days each week, with warm sunshine between and some frost at night. Rarely ever any snow in the valley. Unprotected water pipes are rarely ever frozen.
    "Are the summers very warm?" Answer:--Yes. Ofttimes the temperature reaches 100 in the shade, but there are never any prostrations from heat. The atmosphere is so dry--never humid during warm weather as it is in the East--that no inconvenience is experienced and all work progresses at the same pace it does with the thermometer at 70. The nights are always cool.
    "What would it cost to build a small, comfortable house?" Answer:--A five- or six-room cottage can be built for from $400 to $700. Price would depend largely upon a person's idea of comfort. A dwelling which will serve all purposes and be comfortable so far as ample protection from the weather is concerned can be built for much less than figures given above.
    "What are the wages for a Chinaman servant, a cowboy, a shepherd, a cook, servants and workmen?" Answer:--Few people here employ Chinamen. Servants are an unknown quantity in most Southern Oregon families. The wages of a good farm hand range from $18 to $26 per month, and he don't usually care very much whether he herds cattle, stacks alfalfa or sprays fruit trees. The wages of a hired girl are from $2.50 to $4 per week. In most Southern Oregon homes the hired girl is the whole thing--cook, general housekeeper, washerwoman, servant (?) and companion--sometimes. In fact she is it from cellar to garret.
    "What is the price of a cow, horse, sheep, mule (this isn't what he called it), pig, poultry?" Answer:--Cows are worth from $20 to $70; horses, from $35 to $125; sheep, from $2.50 to $3.50 per head; mules, about the same as horses; hogs, from $4 to $5 per hundredweight; chickens, from $2.50 to $3.50 per dozen; turkeys, 9 cents per pound; ducks, $3 per dozen; geese, $5 per dozen.
    "What is the price of meat, a bag of flour, a bag of potatoes, of bread?" Answer:--Meat retails at any of Medford's three markets at from 8 to 15 cents a pound; a 50-pound "bag" of flour is worth 85 cents, a "bag" of potatoes--100 pounds--is worth from a cent to a cent and a half a pound; a loaf of bread will cost a five-cent nickel. You can buy six loaves for five nickels.
    "How are sold the cattle? Do the people buy on the farm?" Answer:--Cattle are sold almost any old way at from $3.50 to $4.50 per hundredweight. People do not buy ON the farm, but city buyers buy FROM the farmers who have raised cattle ON the farm.
    "Do the grazing cattle sell easily?" Answer:--Yes. Ofttimes the buyers are sold, but this is not general, as Southern Oregon beef is a prime article always. The buyer with the longest sack always ships the longest trainloads of cattle.
    "How many sheep can a shepherd keep?" Answer:--On the range two herders usually handle from 3000 to 4000.
    "How many cows will a cowboy keep?" Answer:--Depends altogether on what he is doing with the cows. Ofttimes four cowboys can keep one cow very satisfactorily, then again and under different conditions 100 cows can be kept headed for the home ranch by one cowboy. Then again the number of cows a cowboy can "keep" depends upon the distinctness of the brands. As a usual thing he will keep all he can and keep himself out of the penitentiary.
    "Is Medford a consequent town, and can I find the necessaries for my living and nothing too expensive?" Answer:--Yes, sir. Medford is of more consequence than a bunch lot of all the other towns of the valley--with an apology to Tolo. Medford is a town of 2500 people. Every line of business is represented here. You can buy anything you will need to live on--from a cambric needle to a threshing machine. All household necessities are very reasonable in price in Medford--cheaper in fact than in most coast towns. Prices do not vary much from those of eastern towns, except in cases of local production, where we are undoubtedly cheaper.
    "Are the sheep subject to disease; do they all die off at once?" Answer:--No. There is no disease here peculiar to sheep except scab, and this succumbs very readily to treatment. They die off at once when the butcher decides he needs one for the block, or they get caught in a barbed wire fence--and these are sometimes for the block.
    "Can I find in Medford the agricultural instruments necessary on a farm, and are they expensive?" Answer:--About the only agricultural "instrument" necessary on a farm is a piano, although many farmers seem happy and prosperous who have only the music of a buck saw, the crow of the family rooster and a threshing machine with which to amuse themselves. Agricultural implements, however, can be bought in Medford from one or all of three dealers and at prices as low as they can be bought for elsewhere.
Medford Mail, November 29, 1901, page 2
A FEW THINGS ABOUT ROGUE RIVER VALLEY.
    The editor has received many letters recently from eastern people, inquiring about the country, climate, soil and the price of land. Many of these people inquire if there are any real estate agents, making the remark, "You must not have them or they would advertise?" Well, we do have some here, but they are not rustling much for business.
    Rogue River Valley contains several hundred thousand acres of land of every known soil, which in the main is very productive, being especially adapted to the raising of fine fruit and grains, and no doubt someday will be a veritable garden and great resort, as the climate is particularly its own, being entirely different from any other section of Oregon and California. Land varies in price and can be bought from $2.50 to $200 per acre, owing to kind, improvements and location. There is considerable good land for sale. The valley is traversed by the Southern Pacific R.R. some 50 miles.
    In speaking of this country let us say that eleven years ago we caught our first view of the valley coming over the Siskiyou Mountains from California. We had viewed in our youth the boundless prairies of the Middle West; in later years, the country round about the Great Lakes; had crossed and recrossed many times in different parts the Appalachian Range of mountains; had coasted along the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico; had seen the mountains of San Domingo and Cuba rise from out the sea in all the glory of their crimson glow. We were at this time finishing a long journey across the continent from the far southland, with a lingering memory still of the old Spanish ruins along the Halifax River, and the old city of St. Augustine, by the sea, around which is thrown the halo of romance and history of the early settlement of this country. With still the memory of the sylvan beauty of the red clay hills of western Florida, the quixotic airs of the old creole city of New Orleans; viewed the great plains and prairies of the Lone Star State; had stopped at San Antonio and paid a pilgrimage to the immortal Alamo, and after crossing the cactus plains of New Mexico and Arizona, had roasted and frozen in the sunny clime of Southern California; viewed many pretty scenes throughout the "Golden State," but never had our eyes rested upon a view which so charmed and dazzled as did our first view of Rogue River Valley. Here nature seemed to have been, when building, in fairest mood; for here she had thrown down, not in chaotic confusion, but in such happy blend as surely would appeal to [the] artist's eye. Here were the fairest of fields and wooded hills, and for a background, in any direction you might look, were lofty mountains crowned with eternal snow, and wrapped about and clothed with verdure to the snow line--for this is spring time--the sun low down in the west, casts a shadow from every mountain peak and with every changing shadow the prismatic colors come and go, now crimson, now gold, now blue, now green; with the last faint rosy tints of the fading day, the perfume of the blossoming fruit and green fields, so intermingling the simple with the grand that the charm is irresistible, making an impression that can never be effaced and one which is just as true today--and even more so--than our vision of years ago. Fair favored land! where grows to perfection the fruits and grains of the temperate zone. A land of clear-running brooks and crystal rivers; a land of gold, from whose fair mountains millions have been taken of the precious metal, and where countless millions still remain, only waiting for the patient miner to bring them forth. And here to this valley let us say there comes no burning sirocco to blast and shrivel with one scorching breath, nor do we ever have the dread tornado which leaves destruction in its wake; nor hither comes the mighty "Ice King" to lock the land within its mighty grasp. Here in this favored clime at small expense life can be maintained in comfort throughout the year. Canaan was noted in ancient times as a land of promise and was the prize sought and gained by many kings. Perhaps this valley, for who can tell, will be as world-famous as was the land of Canaan, and fair legends will be told in times to come, making it more renowned than the old Greek legends tell us of Thessaly's famous vale of Tempe.
 Horace Mann, editor, Medford Enquirer, April 20, 1901, page 4


Last revised June 9, 2024