Council Corner: Ashland’s economy of the future
When it comes to our local economy, Ashland has had a very interesting history, to say the least.We have transformed from a Southern Oregon mill town to an area of the country that is renowned for our...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: Local action on issues is essential
The recent Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration has given me hope and determination concerning the importance of local action to address the issues we will be facing in 2017.The last election...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: Happy returns; embrace our differences
It is Saturday morning as I write my first Council Corner. A fresh cup of coffee and a fresh, brand-new day. I love mornings, often getting up at 4 a.m. to prepare for the day.I am happy and grateful...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: Excerpt from the State of the City 2017
Here is a sequence of six propositions, each of which builds on the ones before it, that concerns the curious relationship between survival and opportunity in these tumultuous times:1. This...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: Ashland’s climate action plan
For many in Ashland and further afield, this has been a frightening start to 2017, with the change in priorities of the current administration and the effect this change may have on the elimination of...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: Welcome to Ashland — it's complicated
I've said before that I sometimes think on our “Welcome to Ashland” signs, our town slogan underneath should read “It’s Complicated.” That seems to embody what it is like to deal with the myriad issues...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: Reasons to be optimistic
There is a lot of angst and frustration with government right now in our country and our communities. Times are challenging, resources constrained and expectations often out of sync with limited...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: Getting acquainted with Traci Darrow
Since this is my first Council Corner after being appointed to the City Council on Feb. 21, I thought I should let readers know more about me.Who is this person? Where did she come from?I was born and...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: It's April 12 — do you know what your community is doing?
It has been five months since the fall elections. For many of us these five months have felt like a revolution. Personally, my appetite for the crises of the day is waning. I've come to the conclusion...
View ArticleExplaining my vote on social grant funding
At our last City Council meeting, we were asked to affirm recommended social service grant funding put forth by the Health and Human Services Commission. At the meeting, I suggested that the...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: Decision-making and transparency
Being on the City Council, I have learned that decisions come from a group process and things don’t always go the way you might want.We are a diverse group of councilors with different life...
View ArticleCrater Lake's Munson Valley named after ill-fated physician
The Crater Lake National Park headquarters is nestled in a deep depression known as Munson Valley. Other features of the park include Munson Springs, Munson Creek, Munson Point and Munson Ridge, all...
View ArticleOnly the name persists of Persists, Ore.
In 1883, William and Irene Willits homesteaded nearly 500 acres in the mountains above Elk Creek in Jackson County, Oregon. They had both been teachers, but liked the idea of living far from their...
View ArticleRogue Valley got a white Christmas
A contributing writer for the As It Was radio series, Luana Corbin, recalls that as a child growing up in the Rogue Valley she had always wished for a white Christmas. Each year as the holiday grew...
View ArticleAs It Was: Barns and troughs served as 1880's billboards
Barns and watering troughs served as billboards in the 1880s, proof that advertising was as much a part of life in those days as railroading and road building.Advertising crews traveled stage roads in...
View ArticleWoman describes six-day road trip to California in 1922
Sixty-nine years after it happened, Marjorie H. Gardner described a road trip in 1922 from Eugene, Oregon, to San Francisco, California. Her family drove a Willys-Overland automobile and a Hupmobile,...
View ArticleEarly maps show towns that no longer exist
On the wall of the 1912 Sunset Schoolhouse in Fort Rock, Ore., is an Oregon map from the 1920s. It shows the major towns of Ashland and Medford along the Oregon and California Railroad line through the...
View ArticleEven detractors at times praised Joaquin Miller's work
Many critics of the flamboyant Western dress and extravagant poetry of Joaquin Miller have also recognized his enthusiasm and contribution to Western literature.A contemporary detractor, author Ambrose...
View ArticleEarly schoolhouse became Eagle Point museum
Long Mountain School District 37 was one of the earliest in Southern Oregon, formed on Dec. 17, 1865, out of the western portion of Eagle Point.The first known schoolhouse was located between Long...
View ArticleMedford prepares for annual Pear Blossom Festival
For decades thousands of Southern Oregonians have celebrated the arrival of spring at the annual Pear Blossom Festival in Medford, Oregon.The festival began in 1954 with a 10-float children’s parade...
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