Blacksmith, harness shops provided essential services
Blacksmith and harness shops were as essential 100 years ago as auto mechanics and service stations are today. In Yreka, California, they included the Swan & LeMay Carriage Making and Blacksmith...
View ArticleAs It Was: School building serves as church rectory
Soon after its founding in 1883, the Medford community needed a school for its children. The first school was a one-room building on South Central in Medford, a subscription school that cost $5 to...
View ArticleBureau of Reclamation rescued Bear Creek irrigation
Three irrigation districts in Southern Oregon first realized in the 1930s that their infrastructure was deteriorating. Founded years earlier as private companies, they also realized they couldn’t...
View ArticleGood coffee comes to the Rogue Valley
It used to be hard to get a good cup of coffee in the Rogue Valley and the rest of Oregon. That's all changed. Said one aficionado, "Coffee was watered down ink when I left in the late 1960s. When I...
View ArticleAs It Was: Central Point vs. the Railroad
First it was the Oregon and California Railroad that chose to run its tracks straight as an arrow through the Bear Creek Valley, bypassing the tiny town of Central Point, Oregon, by a half mile in...
View ArticleAs It Was: Hotel Medford met fiery end
The date of Aug. 8, 1988, may ring a bell for those people living in or near Medford, Oregon, for that day is remembered as the day a fire destroyed the Hotel Medford.Built in 1911, the hotel was...
View ArticleAs It Was: Cats eat rats, rats eat cats, everyone gets rich
It is estimated more than 50 million fur-bearing animals, including cats and dogs, are killed each year for their skins, most grown on fur farms around the world. Southern Oregon historian Ben Truwe...
View ArticleAs It Was: Eric Allen, Jr. — Southern Oregon Journalist
In 1985, Eric Allen, Jr., the prize-winning editor of Medford, Oregon’s Mail Tribune, retired. His journalism career spanned 44 years, earning him the title, “Dean of Oregon Editors.” Allen’s career...
View ArticleAs It Was: High wheel logging in Northern California
When timber was king in the early 1900s, the tremendous size and weight of the fallen trees required special transportation. One of the unique vehicles was a horse-drawn cart with wheels 9 to 11 feet...
View ArticleAs It Was: Josephine County grows hops for beer
When early pioneers settled in Southern Oregon they missed their beer. They needed hops for the brew, so they planted them.The first hops in Josephine County were set out in 1875 just west of Grants...
View ArticleAs It Was: Valley's first flour mill made way for Ashland park
In August 1909, Judge C.B. Watson eulogized the old flour mill in Ashland, which had been torn down and burned two weeks earlier to make way for what would become Lithia Park.Speaking to pioneers...
View ArticleCar created campground demand
The invention of the automobile required the building of better roads and highways as the number of cars in America increased from 8,000 in 1900 to 40 million by 1930. Touring motorists packed food,...
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 ArticleCouncil Corner: Addressing affordable housing
Can we really achieve affordable housing in Ashland?There is definitely a need for housing affordability in Ashland. Housing in Ashland costs more than in many of the surrounding communities.On one...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: The view from inside the eye of the storm
There’s a lot of swirl out there right now, in case you haven’t noticed. National politics is beyond what we might call “interesting," and here in Ashland we are grappling with weighty issues, trying...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: One piece of the housing issue
As a community we have had many conversations regarding housing and affordable housing in Ashland. Occasionally there is consensus on the definition of the problem, and many possibilities to address...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: Can we do it all in Ashland?
Ashland is a city of involved and proactive citizens who work hard on their areas of passion and concern. We have commissions, groups, ad hoc groups and advisory groups in the public and nonprofit...
View ArticleCouncil Corner: How to present your ideas to the city
Citizens often feel frustrated at the City Council's lack of response to the ideas and concerns they express during public forum. The councilors aren't really disinterested, but because public meeting...
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