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Jackson
County 1910 Correspondence.
By J. G. Martin.
EDITOR POST, JACKSONVILLE, ORE. I was made the recipient of a most delightful surprise Friday morning in the nature of a kind thoughtful invitation from my unexpected friend, visitor to the city, Mr. A. D. Wilde of Pasadena, Calif., to accompany him for a few days' ride to the Antioch country, where he has land interests that he wished to investigate. We left the busy city of Medford at 5 a.m. wrapped in its morning nap, and in order to get all the pleasure of sightseeing and enjoyment possible from our limited time our route led us out on the smooth Jacksonville road that we might make a circuit of the Rogue River Valley proper, and give my California friend an early morning glimpse of our earthly paradise, dotted on the right and left by cities whose church steeples could be seen in the distance glistening in the early sunrise, with modern city and farm residences nestling among groves of ornamental trees and clean fruit orchards, surrounded by alfalfa and grain fields, with the valley checkered with endless lanes and newly improved county roads, which my California friend acknowledged, though with some reluctance, surpassed Southern California for pure air cleanliness and thorough cultivation. We had a remarkable fine clear view of Jacksonville, our beautiful historical county seat, from the Hanley Butte nestled among the shady groves of the foothills 5 miles west in the distance whose place and name will always hold the key to Southern Oregon's pioneer history. Our next place of importance was suburban city of Central Point, which from the many newly painted business and residential buildings, cement walks, new steel water tank and a general development of the surroundings the traveler would be led to believe he was passing through a new city of a few years building, which my friend remarked was the most centrally located place for a big city he had seen in the valley. This remark caused a little coolness between us, for I at once thought of my home in swift Medford, 5 miles in the distance. But the most attractive fascinating sight to be seen by us and one that caused us to halt was the big, clean, thrifty, heavily loaded apple and pear orchards on Bear Creek, one mile north of Central Point, whose surface seemed to be as clean smooth as a fashionable house carpet, for there was a perfect sameness as far as the eye would carry you. We noted many new houses being carved out of the chaparral and oak grub thickets, by some ambitious Missourian, we supposed. We halted in the middle of the Bybee bridge that spans the beautiful Rogue, that my friend might see her clear crystal water and get a glimpse of her speckled trout. We found the Modoc Orchard and Development Company of the north side of Rogue River making many permanent improvements and changes on their newly acquired property by planting out 50-acre pear orchard, removing old landmarks of plum and brier thickets, dilapidated worm fences, grading and encircling their entire tract with a post-and-wire rabbit-proof fence, with a new farm residence, barn outbuildings under construction, and with the extinction of those old familiar scenes in our absence of 3 months makes us feel as a stranger in a strange country. We found the stretch of adobe county road leading around the base of north Table Rock, once noted for its many cuss words and breakdowns, is in a fine smooth condition for travel. In our many brief calls during the day at the pleasant farm residences in upper Sams Valley, where cheer, comfort and productiveness appears to abound, we never saw nor heard of any fruit-blight, but the little red-cheeked apple, purple plums, pear, promising fields of grain, corn and hay were much in evidence of our country's prosperity. We reached Medford at 6 p.m., tired and travel-stained, but felt well repaid for our strenuous day's trip of sightseeing, with my California friend completely infatuated with what he saw of the famous Rogue River Valley. Jacksonville Post, June 11, 1910, page 4 OREGON LETTER
From W. H. Lind, an Old Magnetic Springs Boy, Who Is Now Located at Ashland, Oregon. Ashland, Oregon, April 16, 1910.
We start out of the Rogue River Valley then over the Siskiyou Mountains and then into Shasta Valley and around Mt. Shasta, a height of 14,445 feet, then over the Cascade Mountains, then into the gorge of the Sacramento River, which we follow for one hundred miles, then to the foothills of the Sacramento Valley. My run stops 135 miles north of Sacramento, at the head of the valley, but it is the most beautiful country out here. It is called the "road of a thousand wonders," and it surely is. You cannot get out of sight of Mt. Shasta; it is covered with snow and the snow stays all summer, making a most beautiful sight. We also pass Mt. Lassen, an extinct volcano, also covered with snow, but only 10,000 feet high. You can see Mt. Shasta from Sacramento on a clear day with the naked eye by getting in the dome of the statehouse. Shasta is just 300 miles from Sacramento, so you see the air is very clear. The dome of the capitol building is 240 feet high from the sidewalk. You can see the cities and towns all over the valley, a most imposing sight especially for one from our level country. The West Coast is at its best right now. It is not hot enough to burn everything up yet, the fruit is abundant and ripe now, but after a while it will be so hot that everything will be burnt brown. The fruit crop was immense this season. Oregon and Washington are counting very much on James J. Hill building a main line down through Washington and Oregon to California and opening up a country unsurpassed for fertile valleys. He is building this way and someday in the near future will be in San Francisco. Frisco is a little quiet at present. It built a little too strong to commence with, but the West Coast in general is good. The freight and passenger traffic is immense. The grade over the Siskiyou Mountains is a four percent grade and calls for five engines on their freights, so you see the grade is fierce and now the fruit trains are thick, thousands of cars being shipped East. California is counting on getting the Panama exposition for San Francisco. They count on beating New Orleans. When I can get a picture of the new Mallet compound engines I will send you one. They are ninety-six feet long with immense tonnage. Well, George, I guess I had better ring off for this time; will try and let you hear from me again. Will have to write Ed. Moore and Joe Embrey in a few days, so goodbye and be good. Yours as of old,
W. H. Lind. THE WAY WE DON’T DO THINGS
We don't like the way they do things in Jackson County; it contrasts
too sharply with the way we don’t do things in Josephine County. It
brings home to us the crime that we are committing in letting our
superior resources lie dormant while we are being outstripped by our
neighbor on the south.Why Not Get the Spirit and Follow the Good Example of Jackson County. Fourteen years ago a party of us visited Big Butte Creek on a fishing excursion. In a stay of several days we did not meet a human being. There were a few settlers in that region, but we saw nothing but the primeval forest with its great wealth of timber. It then seemed as if at least a generation would pass before the spirit of progress would cross the desert and utilize that wealth. A few days ago we again visited the Big Butte country, going by way of the Pacific and Eastern Railroad to Eagle Point, thence by stage a distance of eighteen miles to Butte Falls. The trip out from Medford was a revelation of the spirit of which we complain. Where we had before toiled over dreary miles of uncultivated land we now passed through mile after mile of well-kept orchards, divine promise of great wealth in the near future. Even the apparently hopeless desert is humming with activity. In every direction teams are grading, ditches are being dug, roads built and homes are being erected. A fine boulevard has been graded through the desert, and it is the claim of the promoters that in a few years this old-time desert will blossom as the rose. The Fish Lake Ditch Company proposes to cover this whole tract with water and thus make it one vast series of orchards. Whether it will be a great success, or whether there are insurmountable obstacles in the soil itself, remains to be seen; but one thing is certain, that in the push and energy displayed we have elements that will ensure success, where success is within the range of human possibility. As we neared Butte Falls we passed some of the old farms of the early settlers. There we saw fruit trees that looked as if they might be thirty or forty years old, trees that have seemingly had no care or cultivation, yet they are breaking down with their loads of fruit. They give us a hint of what may be the future of that section with its splendid soil, water and climate when the spirit that is conquering the desert shall have laid hands on it. Butte Falls is a revelation. Situated on a plateau about 300 feet above Big Butte Creek, with an air that is like wine, water as clear as crystal, surrounded by thousands upon thousands of acres of the finest timber in the world, and a soil that is peculiarly adapted to the growth of all kinds of fruit, an abundance of water for irrigation and with the P.&E. Railroad so nearly completed that the cars will be running there within six weeks, it would be a rash man who would undertake to put the limit to future growth and wealth of this gem of Jackson County. We do not know the corporate name of the company owning the land about Butte Falls. but we are informed that they hold not far from 35,000 acres of that splendid timber, a body whose value runs up into hundreds of millions. The Pacific & Eastern Railroad opens this vast body to the market, and as it is proposed to extend the line through the whole great timber belt to Klamath Falls, it will not take a prophet to foretell the future of the city that is the center of their operations. We found Mr. Mills, the genial manager for the company, ready to give information as to the country and equally ready to help in any enterprise that looks to the welfare of the people. Butte Falls has a fine school building, and they contemplate the erection in the near future of a high school. Surveys have been made for a water system, and the little city of the forest will soon have the finest water of the state, and that means of the world. While we were deeply impressed with the great possibilities of the section just visited, we returned wondering more than ever that Josephine County, with its infinitely greater possibilities, should drag in the rear. We have almost as great a wealth of timber, greater in mines and agriculture, an unequaled asset in Rogue River for power and irrigation, and, opening communication with Coos Bay in the northwest and Crescent City in the southwest, we would have ports and a wealth of intervening country that would cause Grants Pass to outstrip any city south of Portland. What is needed is simply confidence and the will to do. Why the lack of confidence? Years ago the writer was accustomed to say to the business men of Grants Pass that the time would come when this section would pay the penalty of allowing the street corner promoters to pursue their nefarious occupation promoting fake mining, railroad and manufacturing schemes. Today we are reaping the fruits of their seed-sowing in the lack of confidence that makes our people lukewarm when anything really legitimate is presented. The Jackson County spirit transplanted to Josephine County would send this section to the front by leaps and bounds. Will we have to wait the advent of new blood? Will we let others reap our harvest? That question will be decided within the next two years. Rogue River Courier, Grants Pass, August 12, 1910, page 2 JACKSON COUNTY. (Jacksonville, County Seat.)
Jackson County lies in what is known as the
Rogue River Valley in the southwestern part of
the state. It is bounded on the north by
Douglas, on the west by Josephine, on the east
by Klamath counties, and on the south by
California. The population is 25,756; of these
89 percent are United States born; of the
foreign 11 percent about one-fourth are
German; the remaining three-fourths are made
up principally of Canadians, English, Irish,
Scandinavians and Austrians. The total area of
the county is 1,779,662 acres. There are
64,215 acres unappropriated and unreserved, of
which 61,355 acres are surveyed and 2,880
acres are unsurveyed. Of the assessed
appropriated land 103,511 acres are cultivated
and 1,076,601 are uncultivated. Cultivated
land is worth on an average of $68.40 per
acre, and uncultivated land $12.30. The total
value of taxable property in the county is
$23,801,700. The surface is level, rolling and
mountainous. The rock formation in the western
part is pre-Cretaceous; in the
eastern part it is a combination of Cretaceous
and Eocene. The natural forest
growth consists principally of oak, willow,
yellow and sugar pine and fir. Fruit of all
kinds, especially peaches, have been found to
grow well on this soil, which is rich in all
the essential chemicals. It is likely to be a
very lasting soil. Its first need will
probably be phosphoric acid. The soil is black
and deep, ranging from ten inches to several
feet. The subsoil is hard and white. The sugar
beet, hemp, onions, sorghum and strawberries
should grow well on this soil. The soil in the
immediate vicinity of the valley consists of
successive alluvial deposits of different
geological periods and is very rich. Rogue
River and its branches furnish excellent water
power for milling purposes. The fuel used is
wood and costs from $4.00 to $6.00 per cord.
There are several mineral springs with good
curative qualities in the county. The leading
industry is farming. Lumbering is carried on
extensively. There are seven sawmills, three
saw and planing mills, one box factory, [and]
five planing mills, employing in all 86
skilled men at a daily wage of about $3.25;
100 unskilled men at a daily wage of $2.25;
two women at a daily wage of about $1.15.
Mining is also an important industry. There
are sixteen gold quartz mines yielding ore
valued at $24.15 per ton, a number of placer
mines, five asphalt mines, two copper mines
yielding 30 percent ore, one iron mine, also
quantities of asbestos, quicksilver and
building stone. Among the industrial plants of
the county are found brick yards, breweries,
creameries, cold storages, electric light,
flour and feed, fruit canneries, laundries,
machine shops, printing, soda water and water
power, employing in all 115 skilled men at a
daily wage of about $3.75, and 158 unskilled
men at a daily wage of about $2.25. The roads
are in good condition. The climate is mild and
congenial. The mean temperature during the
spring months is 50.5 degrees, summer 61.1
degrees, fall 56.4 degrees, and winter 42.7
degrees. The mean precipitation during the
spring months is 2.64 inches, summer 1.34
inches, fall 1.43 inches, and winter 4.21
inches.
Fourth
Biennial Report of the Bureau of Labor
Statistics and Inspector of Factories
and Workshops of the State of Oregon
from October 1, 1908 to September 30,
1910, Oregon State
Printing Department, 1911, page 137
After three days happily and profitably spent in Portland and in making side trips to Oregon City, Rose City Park and other places, we took a sleeper for Medford. We made it a rule to arise as soon as 'twas light enough to see, and thus we took advantage of all the daylight we could for observing the country we passed through. 'Twas dark when we passed through Roseburg, one hundred miles north of here. Coming up Cow Creek Canyon, south of Roseburg, afforded the roughest of mountain scenery, and we could not refrain from wondering if Medford was going to appear in much such a country, but we were delightfully surprised after a while to see the beautiful, broad valley of the Rogue River come into view and orchard after orchard appear on every hand--orchards from process of clearing and setting out trees to those in full bearing, more heavily laden than I had anticipated in my palmiest fancies and hopes. Do you know that I have seen the apple and late pear trees heavier laden than the Medford booklet shows them? Have seen a dozen apples, good-sized Jonathans, Spitzenberg and other varieties on a foot of limb, and the rest of the tree, and tree after tree, and orchard after orchard almost as heavily laden? You just cannot realize it. How I wish that all of you could see the apples and winter Nelis pears as they actually are now. Apple picking has been on for two weeks. Twenty-five carloads left here Friday for New York. We came here--first, for Mrs. Fuselman's health, so will let up on the fruit talk pretty soon. Have picked almonds from the trees here, and they are certainly delicious. The tree resembles our peach, and the almond in its hull looks very much like a quarter-grown peach. I do not think they bear prolifically, for people do not grow them in a commercial way. English walnuts will be on the market the last of October. I have not yet seen any bearing orchards. Our black walnut has been planted to a considerable extent and we see rows of them here is the city for shade, and pretty well laden with walnuts; have seen no white walnuts, though they are here. In fact, we have not been out much because of our household goods not yet having arrived, and our trying to get two new homes (which we purchased) in readiness for the arrival. We have two small bungalows in a good, growing residence section of Medford, and now, after a lapse of almost a month, we are expecting our goods daily. [The Fuselmans lived at 613 Catherine Street in Medford.] Medford is a city of ten thousand inhabitants, and she has them, too--and scarcely a house for rent and not a store room. At least five hundred residences, some of them finer than anything in Martinsville, have been built this year and more starting daily. More business buildings, equally as substantial as the Citizens National Bank building, are now being erected than all the business rooms in Martinsville. In addition to this are two fine six-story hotels being put up of concrete, granite and brick. Fine Oregon gray granite is only fifteen or sixteen miles distant. Medford has few factories, I understand, but you just keep your eye on us. The Southern Pacific is the main dispenser of injustice as regards to railroad transportation and freight, but it is only a question of a short time until Harriman and Hill will have lines through here from the Pacific to the interior and Eastern Oregon. In a very few years Oregon will be plied with transportation of all kinds and in all parts. Oregon is a comer. I find since I got started to writing that I am like the parrot that kept calling--"Kitty, Kitty, Kitty." The cat looked about for the person calling her. Again the parrot called "Kitty, Kitty, Kitty." The cat again whirled about, looked around, sat down and commenced washing her face, with one eye on the parrot, sitting on its perch. The parrot another time called "Kitty, Kitty, Kitty," and just at this junction the cat landed atop of the parrot and pulled all her tail feathers out. The scrimmage was brief, the cat sat down nearby and re-engaged in laundering herself. The parrot pulled herself together, jerked her head to one side, looking at the cat and said: "I know what's the matter with me. I talked too much." Fortunately you can't hurl a "shooting stick" three thousand miles. I was in a vineyard Saturday where the owner has tons of large, luscious Tokay and other varieties of grapes, some bunches weighing two pounds or more. I bought any kind I wanted at three cents a pound. I presume Tokays in Martinsville are about ten cents a pound. These are raised without irrigation. The apples I saw--for the most part--are raised without irrigation, and they are much better keeping qualities and flavor. I ate an apple--a yellow Newtown Pippin, of the 1909 crop, kept in cold storage--a few days ago and it was delicious and had kept perfectly. The fruit association here have several boxes of the 1908 crop in cold storage, and I am reliably informed that they are also in perfect condition. I saw second-crop strawberries, fine ones, too, likewise beans, cabbage, beets, etc., growing in the gardens. R. E. Wilson, with whom Paul Blank, a brother of our Clem., works on a ranch, will turn his pigs on his cull apples which our people back home would like to have for winter. Paul Blank has been a resident here in this valley since June 1909, and.his brother, Carl, is now a resident of Medford, though he is in charge of a gang of workmen at Ashland, a few miles south. Both of the Blank boys are looking well. I have seen more of Paul than of Carl. Paul is teaming now for a company of ranchmen and certainly looks the part of health and says this country is good enough for him. He was in Dr. George Cook's hands, who operated on him a few years ago, at St. Vincent's, for appendicitis. Dr. Cook told him to come out here. He took his word for it and is glad he came. Many of us know how Carl Blank came to Denver last winter, accompanying poor Charley Pettit, a brother-in-law, who died there. Carl then came on here and joined Paul, and I think he is also glad he came. These boys are as popular here as their brother, Clem, is in Martinsville, which is saying a great deal. Our families were yesterday guests of Paul Blank for a trip to Lower Table Rock, and we had a delightful time of sightseeing and experiences. We saw our first jackrabbit, killed it and took its ears, since it had no further use for them. O. P. Ellis came upon a mountain rattler. He struck it with a stone as it lay coiled and sounding its tocsin of war. It was soon dispatched by a man with a revolver, and he plucked off its nine rattles for the baby to play with. He wasn't as large as some Jake Thacker brings in, but it was a rattler just the same. We had all been up on Table Rock except Father, who could not stand it to go all the way up. Think of Mrs. Fuselman going entirely up on the mountain--a climb and a stiff one at that, of more than a mile. We were well repaid for the effort. From this eminence we had a most beautiful view of Mount Pitt, fifty miles away, as well as all other mountains of the Cascade Range, on the east, and the Coast Range on the west, to say nothing of the beauties of the Rogue River in its crooked meanderings for miles, and the prolific orchards and grain farms on either side of it for miles distant in all directions. One not accustomed to such view power cannot conceive how one can see in the western country. Mount Pitt is a very high peak, perhaps seven thousand feet, and is more clearly visible to the naked eye at fifty miles distance than a large wheat rick on Henry Shireman, Jr.'s hill to one standing on the courthouse tower. ----
Say, boys, this is the next day and the hemorrhage of my think-shop
that I had yesterday in writing the foregoing twenty-two pages has
apparently caused no unpleasant effect after a good night's rest, and
here I am making a few remarks by way of bringing effusion to a close.
My wife thinks I am out at our new house washing windows, but I am not.
It makes my head ache to wash windows and, as I never had a genuine
headache, it's too late in life for me to try to get up one of any
consequence by beginning to wash windows now.It's raining here today, which is the third day of rain since our arrival in Medford--almost three weeks ago--having been one day each week. Just about right; don't you think so? Well, the way it rains here is peculiar and reminds me of our little Elizabeth in her art of crying. The weather man began yesterday to think he had to give us some rain and began getting ready by causing some fleecy clouds to appear from time to time, and last night not a star was to be seen, and rain began to gently trickle down his old weatherbeaten face, without one of those effulgent overflows as we experience so often in Martinsville. He tries to compose himself, and a smile of sunshine breaks forth for a time, then again remembers that his feelings were hurt, or he imagines they have been, and the tears of rain begin to slowly roll down his cheeks again. The rain does not come in torrents as it does back home--the former home. Many people do not carry an umbrella, but wear a cravenette and trust to luck to keep dry farther than that. I have not seen a resident with a foot of gutter or a downspout. Our city water is melted snow and a cistern is not heard of. We have not heard a rumble of thunder or seen a blink of lightning, and I understand they are both rare in the valley. Paul Blank has been working in the mountains, but snow six inches deep has fallen and will increase in depth, and he has come down into the valley to remain until spring. We saw our first bear while in Portland. It was a ponderous dead black bear with its fur coat on, but dressed and hanging on the hooks in a meat market. It was killed about twenty miles out of Portland. Our next bear was a six-months-old cub, owned by a confectioner here, and is seen in front of the store daily. You should have seen Mrs. Fuselman and Elizabeth leading it on the street by its chain. Citizens here frequently indulge in bear hunts and deer hunts. I might here say to my many admirers that I want a Stevens repeating rifle, a binocular field glass, a pair of elkskin hunting boots and a few other etceteras for my Christmas. Talk it over at a mass meeting so not to duplicate on presents, and don't go to sending money to me for that is the last thing I could possibly need. I write you in plenty of time so that you can have a number of mass meetings if necessary, in order to make out your list of presents without duplicating. You can't afford to let the campaign or other minor matters interfere with these mass meetings. I may take to the pencil pushing trial occasionally, if your readers will stand for it. Wire me if your subscription list shows a decided slump. Medford has ten thousand population. Rogue River Valley has the finest of climates to be found. The air here on this day of rain is lighter and more delightful than Martinsville can muster when she has her Sunday clothes on, and I am not "knocking" on the home of my nativity, either. By the way, that word "knocking" reminds me that Bobby Burns and Dave Watson told me, or else I read it somewhere, something to the effect that "all the world's akin," or that the world is not so large but that you will meet with someone or something that you have known, even though you travel throughout its borders. I was talking to the primary Sunday school teacher here a few days ago and she said--"Well, wouldn't that jar you." Why, I tell you fellows, it was just like a letter from home. What could have been said that would have reminded one more of our teachers at home, more, especially, in the weekday schools. Don't forget the mass meeting, girls, and let me hear from you. I feel the cat on my back now. May I see if I can "come back" another time? Sorrowfully yours,
"J. E. Fuselman Writes of Oregon," The Daily Reporter, Martinsville, Indiana, October 25, 1910, page 3J. E. FUSELMAN. Illinois Valley Plans to Advertise Its Splendid Resources
The progressive settlers of Illinois Valley are planning to hold a
local fair next fall for the purpose of demonstrating to all who will
come and see the exhibits that their valley has resources hardly
equaled by any other section of Southern Oregon. This valley won the
first prize of $50 for the largest number of different kinds of
exhibits and for the best display of products from one district at the
Rogue River Industrial Fair held at Grants Pass this fall, and the same
prize was won at this fair when it was held in Grants Pass three years
ago. There are two strong Granges in the valley and these, as is the
rule with this farmer's order in other sections, will take a leading
part in the preparatory work that is necessary to make the fair a
success. The businessmen of Kerby, Selma, Holland, Waldo and the other
villages in the valley have expressed their willingness to help in the
undertaking. The businessmen of Grants Pass are also taking an active
interest in the undertaking and will cooperate to make the fair the
equal of any county display in the state. Grants Pass is the shipping
point and chief trading place for the people of Illinois Valley, and
the development of the valley is a matter of much importance to the
businessmen of that city and, being alert to their interests and live
hustlers, they can be depended on to do some effective work for the
Illinois Valley Industrial Fair.Illinois Valley, through its isolation and lack of transportation facilities, is the least developed of any section of Rogue River Valley, though one of the richest in natural resources, and consequently offers splendid inducements to the homeseeker and the investor. The first settlement made in this valley was at Sailor Diggings, now known as Waldo, in November, 1851, when gold was discovered at that place by four sailors who had come over the Siskiyou Mountains from Happy Camp, in California, on a prospecting trip. For the next 20 years gold mining was the chief industry of the valley. The placer mines becoming worked out, the settlers took up stock raising and followed that work almost exclusively until within the last few years when dairying and diversified farming were undertaken as a result of the stimulus given by the farmers institutes held at different times in the valley by Dr. James Withycombe and his associate professors from the Oregon Agricultural College. The valley now has some as fine and well-kept farms as can be found in Oregon, while the rural telephone and rural mail reaches almost every home. The roads are fairly good, while the main highway to Grants Pass, 30 miles distant, is being steadily improved by the Josephine County authorities and made into one of the best roads in the state. The first section of 10 miles out from Grants Pass has had every stump, root and rock removed and has been graded into a broad, smooth turnpike that would be a credit to the most modern road builder of the country. There are seven schools in valley, and they will compare in efficiency with the best district and village schools in the state. Ninth grade work is as high as is now done, but the matter is being considered of organizing a district high school for the valley. There is no saloon nor near-beer joint in the valley, as Josephine County is "dry." Churches and secret orders are well represented. The population is almost exclusively native American and of the progressive, liberal western type. Dairying and stock raising are the chief industries. A large and well-equipped creamery, owned by local parties, is doing a big business and has more orders for butter than can be filled. The raising of high-grade stock is extensively carried on, and there are now in the valley quite a number of registered cattle and three registered horses, two of the latter being Percheron and one French Coach. The Jersey is the leading breed of cattle, though the Holstein and other milk breeds are well represented. The beef stock is largely of the Hereford type. When transportation facilities are available fruit raising will also be an important industry, for every variety of deciduous fruit attains perfection in this district. Apples, pears, peaches, grapes and berries do exceptionally well here. Melons and all kinds of vegetables can be grown to perfection, and corn and other grains produce large yields. All the grasses do well, but alfalfa is the leading forage crop. Crop failures by reason of droughts, winter freezes, wind, hail and fierce rain storms are never experienced. Illinois Valley is most fortunately situated as to influences that govern its weather conditions, for it has not the heavy rainfall of the coast nor the arid conditions of the sections further to the east. It is but 30 miles from the Pacific Ocean, and the bracing winds of the sea reach the valley yet they are deprived while passing over the intervening mountains of their excess of moisture and frequent high velocity that at times render the weather conditions very uncomfortable on the immediate coast line. The annual rainfall averages about 70 inches and is well distributed through the year, making the weather favorable to crops. Only during very cold winters does the thermometer fall to 12 degrees above zero and then for but two to three days at a time, and vegetation is green the year around. The summers are cool and bracing. The altitude of the valley floor is about 1200 feet while the surrounding mountains are from 3000 to 5000 feet with peaks that tower up over 7000 feet. The valley is entirely surrounded by mountains, on the west being the Coast Range, on the north the Galice mountains, to the east the Applegate range and to the south the Siskiyou Mountains. Except the few high peaks these mountains are low, well-rounded and wooded, with frequent passes that enable trails and roads to be extended to the adjoining settlements. The principal stream is the Illinois River, which courses through the valley and debouches through a gorge to the north into Rogue River. This river with its great number of tributaries covers the valley with a network of watercourses. One strong feature of this large and regular water supply, for the surrounding mountains hold back the water during the winter to give it forth during the summer, is that a vast amount of power can be developed from the streams, making it possible for even the farmers to have electric light plants and to have power for operating wood saws, cream separators, etc. Illinois Valley is a timbered region, and lumbering will be an important industry when transportation facilities are had and it will be a permanent asset, for the surrounding mountain lands can best be utilized for forest growing. The most numerous varieties are the yellow and sugar pine, oak, alder and madrone. Almost every species and variety of trees known to the Pacific Coast are to be found in this valley. There is a wonderful wealth of flowering shrubs, there being patches of acres in extent of rhododendrons and azaleas that are gorgeous in their beautiful shadings of bloom, while syringas, lilacs both purple and white, Oregon grape, crimson currants and salals are equally as plentiful. Ferns and vast numbers of wild flowering plants give added interest to the forest scenes. Wild grape vines, that swing 100 feet from the limbs of trees and that have a circumference of 12 to 20 inches, grow in this favored valley with a vigor equal to those found in the southern states. The mineral wealth will also be a very important factor in the prosperity of Illinois Valley so soon as a railroad reaches the valley so that transportation facilities may be had. Though the placer deposits have been pretty well washed out, there is yet an immense quantity of gold to be mined, but it is in quartz veins, and it will require capital and transportation to make this wealth available. The copper deposits of this district are among the largest and the richest in the United States. A beginning has been made in the development of these copper properties, and a smelter of 200 tons of ore per day capacity was installed at Takilma six years ago. Its product of matte was hauled to Grants Pass, a distance of 40 miles, by six- and eight-mule teams for shipment, and the coke for fuel was brought in on the return trips of the teams. So rich was this ore, for it carries an additional value in gold that fully paid the smelter charges, that this smelter was run each year during the season when the roads were dry until two years ago when operations were discontinued by reason of the death of the owner pending the settlement of the estate. So soon as a railroad reaches this valley the Takilma smelter will be enlarged and again be blown-in, and it is certain that other smelters will be erected, for there is copper enough in this district to keep half a dozen smelters running for years to come. There are also large deposits of iron ore the development of which awaits transportation. Mica, talc and marble are among the other minerals that are found in this valley, and the large quantities of lime and shale to be had make it certain that the manufacture of cement will be in time one of the big industries of Illinois Valley. The valley has the honor of having one mineral not found in any other part of the world. This is josephineite, so named by the United States Geological Survey in recognition of Josephine County, in which the mineral was discovered. This valley has another honor in this same line to its credit, for in the mountains near Kerby is found a weeping spruce that the dendrologists of the U.S. Forest Service state is not found in any other part of the world. This variety of spruce is a semi-dwarf, and it is exceedingly handsome and striking in appearance, for its branches are quite as long and pendulous as are those of the weeping willow, while its foliage is heavy and a rich, dark green. Another rare and interesting tree that is found in this valley, so highly favored by nature, is a dwarf juniper that grows only on the summit of the highest peaks. This tree is so dwarfed and changed in its habits that it grows like a vine and its branches spread over the rocks, among which it grows quite like the runners of a melon vine. On the same mountains is found a dwarf fern that is only two to three inches high. The plants of this wonderful region are as varied in species and have as many rare kinds as has the tree growth. One of the freak plants is known locally as the "fly catcher," as its hollow flower stem closes whenever a fly or other insect enters one of them. So soon as the insect is dead the tube opens and this vegetable fly trap is again set for another victim. The time is now at hand when the transportation handicap is to be removed from Illinois Valley, for it is practically certain that a railroad will be built into the valley within the next two years. Already several surveys and reconnaissances have been made, and routes have been found over which railroads could readily enter the valley. An engineering crew for the Southern Pacific has been at work for the past six weeks locating the route for a branch of that road to leave the main line at Grants Pass and to extend through the Illinois Valley to the coast and then on to San Francisco. It is also quite certain that the Hill road, known as the Oregon Trunk and the Pacific & Eastern, now building from a connection in Washington with the Hill system of roads in that state south through Oregon and California, will pass through Illinois Valley. With railroad transportation Illinois Valley will rapidly become one of the most populous and wealthiest sections of the Pacific Coast as it is now one of the most prosperous. Rogue River Fruit Grower, Medford, November 1910, page 3 ROGUE RIVER VALLEY RICH
To the average man of the Middle West this story will sound very much
like a pipe dream, for so roseate are the hues that he of the brown and
level fields can scarcely bring himself to believe that near at home is
there a spot at once so picturesque and fertile as the Rogue River
Valley of Oregon, the greater part of which is located in Jackson
County, bounded on the south by California. As Rastus would say, "this
region makes a noise like fruit, particularly apples."Roseate Resources and Beauties of Valley Sound Like Fiction. LEADS IN FRUIT GROWING Medford, Commercial Center of Valley, Has Only Unique Office, and Remarkable Industries. Prof. P. J. O'Gara, pathologist of the Department of Agriculture, who has charge of the government field work on the Pacific Coast, is reported to have said: "I have examined and studied all the fruit regions of the United States, southern Canada and northern Mexico, as well as the principal fruit regions of Europe, and I can truthfully say that nowhere in the world are conditions so favorable for fruit as in the Rogue River Valley. It is the most perfect fruit belt in the world." Important Fruit Station.
Furthermore,
the importance of this section is attested by the fact that at Medford,
the commercial center of the district, the United States Department of
Agriculture has fitted up the only branch office in the Union of this
kind, with a library laboratory, which is in charge of a pathologist
whose duty it is to look after the horticultural interests of the
locality.The history of the rise of the fruit industry of the Rogue River Valley reads like a romance or fairy tale. Some sixty-odd years ago in those good old days when Mother saved a few seeds each year from the perfect specimens of the best varieties of apples, pears and other fruits, the pioneers of this section planted the first trees, and one of the most wonderful things in this connection is that there are apple trees in that section more than fifty years old today bearing prolifically splendid fruit. At present the horticultural interests of the Rogue River Valley overshadow all others and the name itself is inseparably associated with fruit culture, but the time is not far distant when this region will be equally well, or better, known for its other and even more valuable resources. Tributary to the Rogue River Valley there are approximately 22,000,000,000 feet of standing merchantable timber, mostly pine and fir, although there are considerable quantities of spruce, cedar, hemlock and oak. Railways now under course of construction will soon make large tracts of this timber available, much of which is ideal for the manufacture of sash, doors, boxes and finishing lumber. Agriculture Thriving.
As an agricultural country this region is unsurpassed, corn, wheat,
oats, barley, rye, timothy and alfalfa thriving wonderfully and never
failing to make an excellent crop. The yield of potatoes and other
vegetables is astonishing.For many years it has been known that there is gold in paying quantities in this vicinity, one of the first camps of '49 being located in Jackson County. [Gold was discovered in the Josephine County area in 1851; in Jackson County in early 1852.] Of comparatively recent date, however, is the discovery that in the southern part of the county there is a ledge of copper which promises to develop even greater riches than have been found at Butte, Mont., or Spokane, Wash. A railroad ts now being built to the mines, and after this is completed, smelters will be erected and one of the largest copper-producing camps in the world established. To the tourist who is bent upon seeing the world more for the pleasure than the profit there is in it, the scenery in this section, including the Oregon Caves, is a wonderful attraction, and no one who believes in the "See America First" principle should fail to visit this locality. The Oregon Caves, sometimes called the Marble Halls of Oregon, are located in Josephine County, but are easiest reached via Medford. From such explorations as have been made it has been shown that the Mammoth Caves of Kentucky are not as great or as interesting as these caves, but the Oregon Caves having never been extensively advertised, [they] have been visited by but comparatively few people. They are well worth the attention of every student of nature and are one of the wonders of the world. Crater Lake Show Place.
Another of nature's show places is Crater Lake, which is located on the
top of Mt. Mazama, a part of the Cascade Range. According to an old
Indian legend, where this sheet of water now lies once towered a
majestic volcanic mountain peak known as the "Bridge of the Gods." Then
came a period of terrific upheaval, when chaos reigned on earth and the
end of the world seemed at hand. When quiet was once more restored, in
the place of a lofty mountain belching forth fire and smoke was a
beautiful body of pure, sparkling water with no apparent inlet or
outlet. The highest mountain of them all, the monarch of the range, had
been literally swallowed up in the bowels of the earth, the scar being
hidden by this silvery water. The surface of the lake, which is six
miles long and four miles wide, lies more than 6,000 feet above sea
level and is said to have a depth of 2,000 feet. Like sentinels on
guard stand perpetual snow-covered peaks around it on every hand, while
the only sounds to be heard are those of the wind and the wild denizens
of the surrounding forests. Another never-ceasing delight to lovers of
the beautiful is the Rogue River, a rushing cascade of white waters
eddying, tumbling, falling over rocks and boulders in its mad progress
to the sea.The metropolis of this section of the state of Oregon is Medford, a city of about 8,000 inhabitants which is in itself a gem of its kind. It is situated on the main line of the Southern Pacific railway, 330 miles from Portland, and is the western terminal of the Pacific & Eastern Railway, completed to Butte Falls. This city in also the eastern terminal of the Rogue River Railway, connecting it with Jacksonville, the present county seat of Jackson County. Medford Growing Fast.
Medford has never had what might be properly called a boom, but during
the last two years it has traveled a merry clip, and today in many
respects ranks as the second leading city in the state. It has, outside
of Portland, the largest and most enterprising commercial club in the
state, of which it is said every business man in the city is a member.
This commercial club has a standing reward of $5,000 payable to any person
who can show by authentic testimony that any city or town in the United
States has tributary to it within either a ten-mile radius, a
twenty-mile radius, a thirty-mile radius or a forty-mile radius as many
diversified resources as Medford, Ore., has within the corresponding
radii. Large as the reward [is,] no one has yet been found willing to
undertake the winning of it, easy as this might seem, if there is
another place in the world with such a large diversity of resources.Some idea may be gained of the progress Medford is making when it is known that in 1909 more than 450 buildings, business blocks and residences, at a cost of more than $2,500,000, were erected. Yet there is not a vacant storeroom or house in the city. Building operations for 1910 have been extensive, including two hotels to cost $100,000 and upward each, an opera house, a Masonic temple, an office building to cost $75,000, a four-story department store, a three-story hardware establishment, a $60,000 apartment house, an Episcopal church of granite costing $35,000 and numerous other smaller edifices. It is, barring Portland, the best shipping point on the Harriman lines in Oregon and has been rewarded by that system with a passenger depot costing something like $50,000. J.M.
Omaha Evening Bee, November 12, 1910, page 3
Rogue River Valley's Health-Giving Climate
By Dr. E. H. Porter "What
is the character of the climate of Rogue River Valley?" is a question
asked by every newcomer and prospective resident of Medford and
vicinity.
What are the prevailing diseases, the source of your water supply, and above all, is it healthful? Do you have electrical storms or wind storms? Is the valley a good secluded section for semi-invalids? There are many factors which must obtain if one is seeking climate for residential, health, comfort or business purposes. Those factors are temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, purity of air, latitude, altitude and local conditions, i.e., nearness to main towns, nature of soil, irrigation, cultivation, population, smoke, etc. The amount of sunshine, so important in the consideration of any climate, is governed largely by the humidity. As the Rogue River Valley enjoys about 300 days of sunshine yearly, and as the sun's rays are one of the most powerful disinfectants known to science, it naturally follows that this section is free from many of the diseases which are common to less-favored sections. The valley is free of the sudden changes of temperature so common east of the Rocky Mountains. During the winter the thermometer not often goes below freezing, and the hottest summer day rarely brings the mercury to 100 degrees. The heat is tempered by cooling northwest breezes, making the climate a most delightful one for the most delicate patients. While the humidity is great during the winter months, the shortness of that season, the lack of high winds and equitable temperature make the winter months as enjoyable as the remainder of the year. Climatologists would place this section in the category of climates as inland, medium altitude, both a sedative and stimulant, free from winds, electrical storms and sudden changes of temperature, a most ideal combination of conditions, one which is unequaled in the United States. The physiological effects of this section on the newcomer consist of increase in respiration and cardiac functions, increase in appetite and stimulation of the nervous system, and in an increase in both quantity and quality of blood. Burney Yeo, a former professor of King's College, London, in speaking of this section, is very enthusiastic and refers to its mild winters and cool summers, without extremes of heat or cold, making an ideal health climate. Owing to the mildness of this climate, the absence of extreme degrees of heat and cold, Rogue River Valley is suitable for a greater variety of invalids than is any other of similar size in the world. There is no climate in the world which has not its drawbacks, but fewer climatic disadvantages are found here than any other country in the world. For pulmonary diseases this section cannot be surpassed, and it is predicted that the time is not far distant when a a sanitarium for the treatment of diseases of the lungs will be established in the southern end of the valley. Pneumonia, the great killer of the eastern states, is neither common or very fatal in this section. Rheumatism, another disease which in the cold, wet sections of the East claims its yearly quota of victims, is rather uncommon. The water supply of Medford is one of the purest in the world, being derived from Fish Lake, a sparkling body of water at the foot of Mount McLoughlin. No human habitation is near to contaminate lake or river flowing therefrom. While there have been some cases of typhoid fever in Medford, without an exception almost, the source of infection can be traced to numerous old wells from which the water supply of many families was secured before the advent of the present water system. In many instances a few feet from these wells was to be found the family outhouses. Contamination from one to the other was an easy matter and very commonly occurred, producing intestinal diseases. Medford Mail Tribune, January 1, 1911, page B5 Last revised April 5, 2025 |
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