People who came from states much older than Oregon despised the roads in the Rogue Valley in the 1800s. They knew what it was like to have good roads and grew impatient with the Oregon Legislature for its neglect.

In the early 1900s, Redwood groves were considered “the strong box” of Del Norte County, Calif., their grandeur well-recognized in the county. That didn’t keep loggers from chopping down the largest ones to sell to lumber-hungry San Francisco.

In 1908, Frank Lowery was an accomplished river boatman when he began running the mail route from Gold Beach to Agness, Ore. He earned the nickname “Old Reliable” and a reputation for cheerfulness and generosity.

Native American families living in the South Umpqua Valley have been picking mountain huckleberries for generations. A member of the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe, Emaline Young, born in 1905, described participating from the age of four in the tribe’s annual berry-picking tradition.

Transporting logs to the mill was challenging in the days when ox teams dragged timber to the nearest stream for floating most of the way to the mills.

Six social activists from Philadelphia with Shaker backgrounds founded Alpha Farm in the Coast Range west of Eugene, Ore. The group bought a 280-acre farm in 1972 and left urban life behind in favor of a rural, intentional community.

Chris Kenney was born in Jacksonville in 1883, a descendent of William T’vault, a Jacksonville pioneer who supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. In 1966, Kenney wrote his memoirs, looking back on the town and its residents.

Although the California Gold Rush that began in 1848 peaked in 1852 and was over within a decade, Northern California mining companies continued producing gold in the early 1900s.

In property sales, the company that issues an abstract guarantees the title is free and clear. Usually the abstract companies retain these documents in their files.

Georgia Curran Scott Lind was born in California, grew up in Washington State, and moved at age 51 to Southern Oregon in 1969. A trained nutritionist, she had already worked for the Works Project Administration and the Department of Agriculture. In Oregon, she became a school counselor, volunteered for the Britt Music Festival, and helped revive the town of Jacksonville.