CHAPTER XIX.
ROGUE RIVER VALLEY.
Rogue River Valley, like the Umpqua, extends from the Cascade Range to the sea; embracing all the country drained by Rogue River and its tributaries. It has the Umpqua Mountains on the north, the Siskiyou Mountains on the south, and is the most southern division of "Western Oregon. This valley, like the Umpqua, is an aggregation of smaller valleys, divided by rolling hills, and the whole encircled by elevated mountain ranges. The Rogue River is not navigable any great distance from its mouth, owing to the numerous rapids and falls with which it abounds; but for the same reason furnishes abundant water-power. Ocean steamers can enter and carry freight as far up as Ellensburg. It is a stream of unsurpassed beauty, with water as blue as a clear sky, and banks overhung, in some places, with wild trees, shaggy cliffs, and in others by thickets of grape-vines and blossoming shrubbery.
About half a mile off the road to Jacksonville is a fall one hundred and fifty feet in height, down which the river plunges, between rocky cliffs, into a basin in the gorge below, and then rushes roaring over its rocky bed, for some distance, through a deep and narrow ravine—the whole forming one of the most beautiful of the many beautiful wild scenes in this altogether picturesque country.
It is not claimed that there is as great an amount of rich alluvial soil in this section of Oregon as in the valleys north of it. It is rather more elevated, drier, and on the whole more adapted to grazing than to the growth of cereals. Still, there is enough of rich land to supply its own population, however dense; and for fruit-growing no better soil need be looked for. A sort of compromise between the dryness of California and the moisture of Northern Oregon and Washington—warmer than the latter, from its more southern latitude, yet not too warm by reason of its altitude—the climate of this valley renders it most desirable. Midway between Sun Francisco Bay and the Columbia River, what with its own fruitfulness, and the productions of the Wallamet and Sacramento valleys on either hand, within a few hours by railway carriage—the markets of the Rogue River Valley can be freshly supplied with both temperate and semi-tropical luxuries.
The grape, peach, apricot, and nectarine, which are cultivated with difficulty in the Wallamet Valley, thrive excellently in this more high and southern location. The creek-bottoms produce Indian corn, tobacco, and vegetables, equally well; and the more elevated plateaux produce wheat of excellent quality, and large quantity, where they have been cultivated: still, as before stated, this valley is commonly understood to be a stock-raising, fruit, and wool-growing country—perhaps because that kind of farming is at once easy and lucrative—and because so good a market for fruit, beef, mutton, bacon, and dairy products has always existed in the mines of this valley and California.
The placer-mines of Rogue River Valley continued to yield gold in paying quantities to white men, for about twelve years; since when, the diggings have chiefly been abandoned to Chinamen, who are content with smaller profits. Quartz-leads bearing gold, copper, and silver mines are known to exist in this valley, as well as lead, iron, and coal mines; but the limited capital of the inhabitants, and the greater security of other means of living, have caused them to remain undeveloped.
Like every part of the Pacific Coast, this valley has its mineral springs; and like all the rest of Oregon, its trout-streams, its fine forests, game, and abundance of good, soft water. No local causes for disease seem to exist here; and with care to avoid the miasma always arising from freshly broken ground, we can not conceive of a country more naturally healthful, or in every way pleasant to live in.
The Rogue River Valley is divided into three counties—Jackson, Josephine, and Curry. Jackson County covers an area of 11,556 square miles, and has a population of 4,759; about fifteen thousand acres of cultivated land, and assessable property to the amount of $1,500,000. The price of farming land is from five to ten dollars per acre.
Jacksonville, the county-seat of Jackson County, with a population of one thousand, is located at the head of a valley, forty miles long by about twelve wide, near the foot of the Siskiyou Mountains, in a romantic and beautiful situation. It is a thriving business place, being the point of exchange between the mining and the agricultural population. Ashland, the second town in the county, sixteen miles south-east of Jacksonville, has a fine water-power, and a woolen-mill erected upon it, which manufactures blankets, flannels, and cassimeres. A flouring-mill, and two lumber-mills, are also located here; besides a marble-factory and machine-shop—showing the manufacturing enterprise of a small community. The marble used here is taken from a quarry close by, and is of a good quality. It is sparkling, white, hard, and translucent; looking like a conglomerate of large crystals. It is sawed by water-power, the saw only penetrating about three inches per day.
Josephine County embraces 2,500 square miles of the more mountainous middle division of the Rogue River Valley. Only about six thousand acres have been put under cultivation. Its population is disproportionately large, when the amount of land cultivated is considered; which only proves that its principal wealth is presumed to consist in its mines of gold, silver, and copper. Mining has been carried on with profit for about ten years; and the enterprise of some companies in turning the water out of the beds of some of the streams, has lately opened up rich placers of gold, and given a new impetus to gold-mining.
Copper-mining has not been so successful, chiefly on account of the purity of the metal, making it difficult to work. Another obstacle, is, want of transportation for the ore to any port or shipping-point. This latter obstacle to mining operations is one that time and capital will remove. The chief mining localities are on Josephine, Althouse, Sucker, and other tributary creeks flowing into the Illinois River, itself a tributary of Rogue River.
Owing to the shifting nature of mining populations everywhere, Josephine County has less assessable property than other portions of the country. Yet it is one of the most delightful parts of Oregon, with grand mountains and quiet, fertile valleys, lying between beautiful slopes; with oak groves looking like old orchards, and open woods of the noble sugar-pine; with abundant wild fruits and flowers, balmy airs, and odors of sweet-scented violets. "It is," a lady said to us, "a paradise of beauty, where, if one had one's friends, life would be as charming as could be desired."
Kirbyville is the shire-town of Josephine County, situated on the Illinois River, and doing the business of a flourishing country town. Several other places of minor importance are located on the different streams. Educational and religious privileges have not kept pace with other improvements in this part of the Rogue River Valley, for the same reason that renders all mining localities inattentive to such matters—the want of a permanent population. They wait for an influx of steady-going settlers with families, a great number of whom could find delightful homes in Josephine County, at Government prices, or under the homestead law.
Curry County differs from Josephine, in being more heavily timbered, as the mountains nearest the coast are always found to be. In among the mountains are some small prairies, and others are found extending along the sea-shore. The soil everywhere is highly productive; but owing to the great preponderance of lumbering and mineral interests, this county will not become notable for agriculture, though it might be esteemed an excellent fruit or dairy country. Its population is small, on account of its inaccessibility. The present population follow gold-mining, chiefly on the ocean-beach, where is an inexhaustible mine, which the winter winds and tides throw up each year for the work of the following summer. The gold which is everywhere found on the coast of Oregon, but more particularly this southern portion, conclusively proves that deposits of the precious metal exist in the Cascade or Coast mountains, or both. That which is found at the mouth of the Umpqua and Rogue rivers might have been washed from the Cascade Range, as those rivers rise there. But farther north, on the coast, where the streams all rise in the Coast Range, gold is also found, though it has not been mined, as in these localities it has. In fact, the "color" may be "raised" in almost any stream in Oregon, and we have seen it taken out of the gravel in a well which was being dug in Portland.
Curry County is well supplied with game and fish. Its splendid cedar forests are worth more than a gold-mine to whoever will convert them into lumber. Cedar-trees that have not a limb on them for a hundred feet, and from three to eight feet in diameter, are not uncommon. Port Orford, the only port of the Rogue River Valley, is in this county, and also Cape Blanco, the westernmost point in Oregon. There is good harborage at Port Orford, and water enough for such vessels as are used in the lumber trade. In fair weather, the ocean steamers sometimes call here. A road is built across the mountains from the port into the Umpqua Valley; so that, with some improvements, Curry County might be brought into note for its natural productions, instead of being considered too far out of the world to be habitable. Ellenburg is the county-seat.
Curry County shares, in common with all the coast country, a climate superior in some respects to the valleys. The changes in temperature are less than in the interior; being cooler in summer, and warmer in winter. The sea-fogs keep the vegetation forever green; and miasmatic diseases are unknown. These are certainly advantages not to be contemned. The settlers in the valleys would like to live on the coast, if it were not for the mountains between it and their fertile prairies. Yet, it is just by these mountains that the climate of each division is made what it is—partially confining the sea-fogs and winds to the coast, by which one is made cool and moist, while the other is comparatively warm and dry.