Articles from the Historical Society in Josephine County Oregon

Pioneer Days for Southern Oregon
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THE WINTER OF 1853

The Balmy days in Oregon were not void of hardships. In fact, it was far from it. During the winter of 1853 a continuous snow fell over Southern Oregon. For four weeks the frozen fleece fell, and at the end of this time there came a freeze, and the whole region lay buried beneath an icy mantle for two long months. All travel was impeded. Trails were blocked and packers and trains locked in an ice-bound grip. Supplies from Scottsburg, the Willamette Valley and Yreka were snowbound all along the trails. The grub kits of the many miners on the creeks and gulches and in the camps got low.

Those indeed were cold and hungry days for the pioneer seeker for treasure in the Oregon Eldorado. Gold there was in plenty, but it could not buy that which could not be had. Flour sold for $75 a sack, and finally gave out at this price; beans, the miner's never-failing friends, could not be had at $25 a pound; and salt was exchanged for its weight in gold.

But by and by the warm sun of springtime peeped through the clouds, and gladly was hailed the day when the last splotches of white disappeared. Many miners had died of starvation and exposure, while scattered everywhere over the valleys of the Rogue and the Illinois were the carcasses of hundreds of horses and mules.

INDIAN TROUBLES

Following closely upon the hardships of that bleak winter came the outbreaks of the Indians. Angered by the invasion of the whites on their sacred territory, and driven farther and farther back from their accustomed haunts, the Indians at last burst into open revolt, and from 1853 to the summer of 1856, there were continuous skirmishes between the Indian and the whites. It would require a volume to enumerate the hundreds of skirmishes that were waged between the whites and the Indian during the war of 1853-54, and of 1855-56. During these wars there were scores of whites as well as Indians that were dispatched to the great beyond. Continued - Part 3

See the pictures:

Early Placer Gold Mining In Josephine Co.
A very Popular Rocker

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