Following the discovery of gold in the winter of 1851-2, Jacksonville, Oregon,
became a melting pot of races, classes, and cultures as ambitious individuals
pursued the promise of riches. The offer of free land brought settlers
seeking opportunity. The influx of miners and settlers attracted merchants
with goods to sell and opportunists of all kinds.
Historic Jacksonville, Inc. brings the history of Jacksonville and
Southern Oregon to life through the stories of the people, places, and things
that have contributed to who we are today.
Did you know that ghosts still linger in Jacksonville’s historic buildings? Learn about these spirits on
Jacksonville Haunted History Tours!
We’re coming into the “witching season” and the ghoulies, and ghosties, and long-legged beasties are back — along with murder and brothels and epidemics and hangings and arson and saloons and haunted houses! Learn about ghosts that still linger in Jacksonville’s historic district along with a little history about the buildings, their occupants, and life in a gold rush town. Historic Jacksonville Inc.’s last guided Haunted History walking tours of 2024 will be offered on Friday, October 11, and Saturday, October 12.
Tours leave from the Jacksonville Visitors Center at the corner of North Oregon and C streets and last about 1 hour. Guests can choose form 2 different tours each night. The Courthouse route features brothels, epidemics, and hangings. The Britt Hill tours highlight murder, arson, saloons, and Oregon’s oldest Chinatown. And both tours have lots of haunted houses. Tours are $10 per person and reservations are required. Tickets are available at www.historicjacksonville.org/haunted-history-tours/.
Mark your calendar for our fall
Victorian Days
at Jacksonville’s 1870s Beekman House Museum!
September 28 – “Victorian Medical Practices”
Did you know that Coca Cola was initially marketed as a brain tonic, since its original cocaine based formula was a “stimulant”? Or that Lydia Pinkham’s, that popular Victorian nerve tonic, was heavy on opium? Doctors lacked formal medical education; hospitals were virtually non-existent; narcotics, alcohol, and poisons were the base of most medicines; and the “cure” was often worse than the cause! Costumed docents share local health care available in the late 1800s, stories of Beekman family health issues and “cures,” and sanitation measures adopted.
October 19 & 20 – “Victorian Mourning Customs: Honoring the Dearly Departed”
Victorians created elaborate rituals around the passing of a loved one. The house will be decorated as a Victorian house in mourning—clocks stopped, mirrors draped in black, mourning wreath on the door, coffin in the parlor. Costumed docents will share the fashions, home décor, funeral etiquette, social behavior, and personal mementos that honored the dearly departed in the late 1800s.
Tours are $10 per person and reservations are required. You’ll find tickets and information at https://www.historicjacksonville.org/victorian-theme-tours/
And have you
heard about
Jacksonville’s
New Museum?
Ariel and Caliban, two of our Walkabout Wednesday tour guides, are visiting Jacksonville’s Old City Hall. This 1881 building will become the home base for a “Museum without Walls” that incorporates the town’s entire National Historic Landmark District (the first one on the West Coast)!
Click here to check out Ariel and Caliban’s exploits, as well as those of other members of our Walkabout Wednesday Club, as they provide a preview of
some of our museum “sites.”
Stay tuned for more museum information!
And there are always lots of virtual ways to
Explore Historic Jacksonville!
Want an overview? Watch our 30 minute video.
Want a quick sample? Check out our daily Facebook and Instagram posts.
Want to dig deeper? Visit one of the 50 sites on our Walk through History blog.
Enjoy a visit to the historic C.C. Beekman House when
Mrs. Julia Beekman “Invites You to Call”
for a tour of her 1873 home.
Or visit many of Jacksonville’s original residences through our 45 minute
“Step Back in Time” Historic Home video!
Tour Jacksonville’s pioneer cemetery, one of the oldest cemeteries in the Pacific Northwest that has remained in continuous use through our new 45 minute
Pioneer Cemetery tour.
View Jacksonville through the eyes of local pets as they sniff out the
history and stories of local sites each week in our
Walkabout Wednesday series.
Join us for our on-going “Thirsty Thursday” saloon series featuring early Jacksonville stories of beer, wine, whiskey, saloons, and “entrepreneurs”!
So many ways to see the places and learn about the people who transformed a gold rush town into the 19th Century commercial, governmental, and social hub of Southern Oregon! Enjoy the treasure trove of Jacksonville History on this website plus daily history trivia on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Find out how interesting and fun history can be!
Jacksonville 1883 (lithograph)
When Oregon was admitted to the Union in 1859, Jacksonville was the largest inland trade center in the new state, and Jacksonville and its residents played a dominant role in early Oregon history and statehood. But when the railroad by-passed Jacksonville in the 1880s, the town slowly sank into oblivion. However, that oblivion also proved to be the town’s salvation, preserving the historic buildings, homes, and character that you see today—Jacksonville’s National Historic Landmark District. Today, these landmarks live again through the efforts of the City of Jacksonville, volunteers, and private owners so that you can again experience Jacksonville in its heyday.