Tova is a 15 ½ year old Corgi and mini-Australian shepherd mix.  She has spent much of her life as a therapy dog for nursing homes and schools, but her favorite volunteer “gig” is now the weekly children’s reading program at the Jacksonville Library. 

 

Jacksonville Gold Miner Sculpture

Today Tova is in front of the Jacksonville Gold Miner sculpture on the library’s front lawn, created in 2007 by famed British sculptor Alan Collins. 

The sculpture commemorates the town’s 1850s gold rush, but did you know that Jacksonville actually had 2 gold rushes?  During the 1930s Great Depression, Jackson County gave out mining permits rather than putting able-bodied individuals on the dole, i.e., welfare.  These resourceful individuals undermined almost every square inch of Jacksonville looking for any leftover gold. 

When the current Jacksonville Library building was constructed in 2003, the contractors discovered a major tunnel, most likely a 1930s enterprise, that began near the bridge west of Jacksonville on what is now Highway 238, passed under the old train depot (now the Visitors Center), ran across North Oregon on the south side of C Street, and followed the “rim” of C Street almost to 4th, ending under the 1930s community center (now the Jacksonville Inn parking lot)!