The lure of ...gold

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A Southern Oregon gold miner uses a sluice box to separate the gold from gravel in this 1850s photograph.

December 22, 2008

By Paul Fattig

Mail Tribune

The monument in Rich Gulch on Applegate Streetjust a block south of Oregon Street in this picture-perfect historic town leaves little doubt about the site's significance.

"Gold first found here 1851" declares the sign over the monument.

"Gold found here December 1851 by James Cluggage and John R. Poole," adds the plaque embedded in concrete.

Discovery of the precious yellow metalin the Oregon Territory played a majorrole in Oregon becoming a state, albeitthe information provided on the monument offers more iron pyrite — fool's gold — than nuggets of truth from the perspective of historian and restoration consultant George Kramer of Ashland.

"The first place gold was discovered in what became Jacksonville was actually on Jackson Creek," he said.

That was in the late summer or fall of 1851. The gold was found by Mr. Sykes, a hired man employed by Indian agent Alonzo Skinner, along with Skinner's nephew, James, wrote Kramer in "Mining in Southwestern Oregon: A Historic Context Statement." He wrote the research paper in 1999 for the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Cluggage and Poole made their find on what became Daisy Creek shortly after the Jackson Creek discovery, Kramer noted. Gold already had been discovered earlier that year in the Illinois Valley south of Grants Pass, he said.

No matter where gold was first discovered in the Oregon Territory, its promise of instant riches brought the people and eventually the desire for statehood, Kramer said.

"People like Peter Britt, they might have come here for the mining but they stayed," he said, referring to the Swiss-born pioneering photographer who arrived in Jacksonville in 1852 with 300 pounds of photographic equipment.

"That's an important part of the history of Oregon statehood," he said. "The gold was the motivation. But they had the good sense to realize this was a great place to live."

Even the Sutter's Mill golden find in California in 1849 was a major influence on setting Oregon up for statehood, he said.

"The discovery of gold in California was important to Oregon statehood because it encouraged settlement in Oregon," he explained, referring to 49ers heading north in search of gold. "Oregon also became the breadbasket for miners in California. Farmers grew grains and foodstuffs in the Willamette Valley, then took it by pack train to California."

As a result, most travelers stopped in Jacksonville, originally known as Table Rock City, en route to California, he said.

"Jacksonville was the largest city in Oregon at the time of statehood," he said. "Portland was nothing. The capital of the Oregon Territory was Oregon City but it was smaller than Jacksonville at the time."

As gold was discovered, hamlets popped up around the beehive of mining activity. In southwestern Oregon, that included burgs such as Althouse, Browntown, Golden, Gold Hill, Sterlingville and Waldo.

First using gold pans and picks, and later hydraulic "giants" to wash away whole hillsides, miners toiled for gold throughout the region. But many veteran miners found the real gold was in supplying miners with grub and tools, Kramer said.

"Although gold had in fact been located earlier, at Canyon Creek for example (in the Umpqua River drainage), by most accounts the first significant gold strike in the Oregon Territory, certainly the first of any lasting impact, occurred in the Illinois Valley of what is today Josephine County," Kramer wrote.

"This first mining area became known as 'Sailor's Diggings,' ostensibly because it was first located by a group of sea-faring men who had jumped ship in search of gold," he added of the place that became known as Waldo, a few miles east of O'Brien.

The first mining code in the territory was written by Illinois Valley miners in spring 1852.

"We, the miners of Waldo and Althouse in Oregon Territory, being in convention assembled for the purpose of making rules to regulate our rights as miners, do hereby on the first day of April, 1852, ordain and adopt the following rules and regulations to govern this camp," it began.

These were not long-winded folks. The four resolutions were short and to the point:

• That 50 cubic yards shall constitute a claim on the bed of the creek extending to high water on each side.
• That 40 feet shall constitute a bank or bar claim on the face extending back to the hill or mountain.
• That all claims not worked when workable, after five days, be forfeited or jumpable.
• That all disputes arising from mining claims shall be settled by arbitration, and the decision shall be final.

"The discovery of gold at Sailor's Diggings and in Jacksonville led to a huge influx of settlements in Southern Oregon on an exponential scale," Kramer said.

Shortly after those discoveries, gold was found along the Umpqua River near Scottsburg, a town founded in 1850 by Levi Scott, an Applegate Trail blazer. Gold dust found in the ocean beaches in Curry County also brought thousands of miners to sift through the black sand along what is now Gold Beach.

By 1860, the growing newborn state had 52,465 residents. Larger gold strikes in northeastern Oregon, in places such as Baker City and John Day, drew even more people.

"When you compare Kerby to Jacksonville, you can see the difference was not the discovery of gold itself," he said. "The difference was that people stayed."

Today, Jacksonville is a vibrant incorporated town while Kerby is not, he observed.

Yet both were their respective county seats in the early days, with Jacksonville representing Jackson County and Kerby representing Josephine County, he said.

Jackson County was established when Oregon still was a territory on Jan. 12, 1852, and included lands which now lie in Josephine, Curry, Coos, Klamath and Lake counties. Josephine County was carved out of Jackson on Jan. 22, 1856.

"Both Jacksonville and Kerby lost their status as county seats," Kramer said. "Jacksonville grew so fast and so big. But they took the trouble to build with brick. An economy grew up around it that couldn't be abandoned."

Still, while the discovery of gold in southwestern Oregon was important to statehood, that discovery wasn't as large as the 1861 discovery in the Baker City area or the earlier 1849 discovery in California, Kramer said.

"The gold rush here paled in comparison to those discoveries," he said. "It was short-lived here. What was important was that the gold discovery here happened early. It provided the motivation for settlement.

"People stayed," he reiterated. "That made all the difference."

Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at pfattig@mailtribune.com.

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