Standing in the Gap for Oregon

Oregon Caves Cascades, Josephine Co. Violence shall no longer be heard in your land, neither wasting nor destruction within your border; But you shall call your walls Salvation, And your gates Praise. Isaiah 60:18 The population of Josephine County is 88,000. Grants Pass is the county seat with Cave Junction the other incorporated town. The county borders California to the south, Curry to the west, and Jackson to the east. It is a beautiful area with the Rogue, Applegate, and Illinois rivers providing recreation opportunities. Other beautiful and interesting areas to explore include Kalmiopsis Wilderness and the Oregon Caves National Monument. We’ve written about some of the history here , here , and here, including the story of Josephine Rollins, for whom the county was named. The county has a home-rule charter where the voters adopt and amend the type of county government they have. The three commissioners are elected for four-year terms and are responsible for adopting ordinanc...

  Trees in Grants Pass, Oregon My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold. And my revenue than choice silver. Proverbs 8:19 Josephine seems like such a nice name for a county. Josephine County was named after Floyd Rollins’ daughter, Josephine Rollins Ort. Floyd and his daughter were among the first group of prospectors that discovered gold in the Illinois Valley in 1851. They were headed to California but stopped to investigate a rumor of gold they heard from the local tribes. The county was formed in 1856. Several forts were built in the county and much of the action of the Rogue River Indian Wars (1855-58) took place in Josephine County. Most of the local tribes, except for a few small bands, were relocated to the Grand Ronde reservation at the close of the war. Another large ethnic group in Josephine County was the Chinese, who came to mine after the gold strikes. They were required to keep to their own communities, and there were instances of injustice against them. ...

Josephine County, Oregon Siskiyou Mountains Violence shall no longer be heard in your land, neither wasting nor destruction within your borders; But you shall call your walls Salvation, And your gates Praise . Isaiah 60:18. Drawing lines around Oregon ‘regions’ is a bit subjective and arbitrary, but it seems safe to put Josephine County in the ‘Southern Oregon’ region, along with Jackson and Klamath. This area lies along the California border and is a mixture of forested mountains and drier climate as we move east toward the high desert ‘Outback’ of Oregon. Josephine County was established in 1856 from part of Jackson County, and was the last county created before Oregon became a state. The county seat is Grants Pass. In early days the pioneers traveled the Applegate Trail through this part of Oregon, usually going somewhere else. The land was hilly and heavily forested, so it was an area to get through to get to easier ground – until gold was discovered. Due to the gold rushes a...