The Benevolent Order of Elks Lodge facing the corner of Central Avenue and Fifth Street in downtown Medford, Ore., is a good example of Beaux Arts architecture.

In 1852, eight-year-old William J. Bidwell emigrated with his family from Wisconsin to California. They first settled at Horsetown in Shasta County. The father, John Bidwell, mined during the winter of 1852, became a blacksmith and wagon maker, and in 1858 moved the family to a 160-acre farm in western Shasta County.

Grants Pass became a major recreation getaway in the early 20 th century thanks to the coming of the railroad, the opening of the Oregon Caves Highway, and the enthusiasm of citizens, primarily the town’s Commercial Club. The city responded by giving priority to making visitors and residents as comfortable as possible.

An article in the Medford Mail Tribune 100 years ago said a group of 19 climbers known as the “Grizzlies” attempted to name a Siskiyou mountain “Steel” in honor of William Gladstone Steel of Medford, Ore.

Southern Oregon’s Central Point Herald lent support to community promotional schemes in the 1910s. Nearly every weekly issue offered local verse touting area’s wonders. Here’s one by regular contributor Charley L. Gant:

Replacing ferries by bridges increased travel and accessibility in Southern Oregon and Northern California.

Here’s a story from the Klamath Falls Evening Herald of Dec. 11, 1913, about a homesteader who had two wives – at the same time.

In 1909, Charles D. Willson obtained the first use-permit from the Crater National Forest and built a small hotel on 10.4 acres at Rocky Point on the northwest shore of Upper Klamath Lake.

Word of a major gold strike on the Fraser River of Canada in 1857 reached gold camps as far away as the Illinois Valley of Southern Oregon. Mining had become hard work and Herman Reinhart was ready to move on to richer strikes.

A showman from the Rogue Valley, Don Haynes, twice attracted public attention more than 60 years ago, and then disappeared from public view.