As It Was

The small, gas schooner Rustler frequently stopped along the Southern Oregon Coast with dangerous cargoes. In February 1917, it arrived at Gold Beach loaded with 30 drums of gasoline and a ton of dynamite.

Sports have been a large part of Tara Harrington’s life. While participating in soccer, basketball and track and field at Mazama High in Klamath Falls, she earned All-State honors in all three sports and Southern Oregon Conference Player of the Year in basketball and soccer. Besides being a 4.0 student, in 1993 she was Oregon’s first high school All-American girls basketball player.

Maintenance of early day roads made of dirt or dirt-covered wooden slats was tricky, with rain a constant threat.

One of the oldest structures in Siskiyou County is the “Davis Cabin,” built in the 1850s by Henry L. and Jesse F. Davis. Today, the cabin is on display at the Siskiyou County Museum on Main Street in Yreka, Calif.

Some early schools in Siskiyou County were rebuilt and abandoned multiple times, but continue to serve present-day students.

The boundary between the Oregon Territory and Mexico had been established as the 42 nd parallel-north-latitude until 1848, when Mexico ceded territory to the United States that became known as the State of California.

The first Masonic Lodge in Oregon south of Salem was Warren Lodge, established in Jacksonville in 1855. Its careful member recordkeeping makes it possible to learn some trends about the early European settlers in the Rogue Valley.

During early pioneer days, nearly every small town in Oregon had its own grist mill to grind flour for local farmers. In those days, flour was an important staple, and buying local was the only choice shoppers had.

In the 1970s, logger Jack Erickson was working on a new way to transport logs out of the forest. He leased a Sikorsky S-64E Skycrane helicopter and opened the Erickson Air-Crane company in Central Point, Ore. Before long, the company was transporting construction materials and moving supplies to remote regions in Alaska.

On Dec. 18, 1919, the oil tanker J.A. Chanslor lost its way in the fog along the Southern Oregon Coast, striking a reef close to the shoreline north of Cape Blanco. Heavy seas split in two the fully-loaded vessel, spilling its cargo into the ocean and drowning 36 crew members.