Did you know that Jacksonville boasted the first financial institution in the Pacific Northwest? Of course, it didn’t look like much. It was just a large safe!
Cornelius Beekman had come to Jacksonville in 1853 as an “express” rider for Cram Rogers & Co., carrying the mail, newspapers, parcels, gold, and even passengers 2 to 3 times a week roundtrip between Jacksonville and Yreka. Express was the early version of postal service, UPS and Fed Ex. When Cram Rogers went belly up in 1856, Beekman opened his own express company.
Jacksonville was a gold mining town, and Yreka was the connecting stage point for San Francisco and the mint, so Beekman carried a lot of gold. Shortly after opening his own express company, Beekman bought a large safe to store the miner’s gold for either shipment or safe keeping. And with that safe, he established the first financial institution in the Pacific Northwest. You can still see that safe in the Beekman Bank Museum, the banking office Beekman built in 1863 at the corner of North 3rd and California streets. And perhaps we should mention that in Jacksonville’s heyday, the Beekman “Bank” saw over $40 million in gold cross its counters—worth over $1 billion today!