Forest Creek: 5.5 Miles of Jackson County Road & 140 Years of Development, ALL AGES

Forest Creek, a tributary of the Applegate River, has shaped 140 years of local life along its upper 5.5 miles, from its origin near Mt. Isabelle. Here, people have settled, mined, logged, built barns and schools, and buried their dead in the Log Town Cemetery. Join us for a trip back in time along this stretch of Jackson County Road, from those early days to the present. You’ll learn about the creek’s geography, the Forest Creek School, mining in the 1930s and early 1940s, the Mt. Isabelle Forest Fire Lookout, and the First Nation families recorded on Forest Creek in the 1880 census. As automobiles sped up access to town, Forest Creek transformed from a farming community into a commuter community.

This presentation will be given by Annice Black, daughter of local historians John and Marguerite Black, whose family lived on Forest Creek from 1900 to 2008. The research draws on files compiled by Marguerite and John for their book, Ruch and the Upper Applegate. Annice is currently pursuing a second bachelor’s degree in history at Southern Oregon University and is working to curate and archive her parents’ files for the Southern Oregon Historical Society and the ‘Marguerite Watson Black’ Collection in the Special Archives at Hannon Library. You can contact her at aoblack.com