Ashland

by Joe Peterson

Overview

What is known as Ashland today was historically less of a destination than a crossroads. Native Americans had passed through the valley for centuries, often establishing small villages. Farmers in search of new lands followed the Applegate Trail, bringing their wagons through the area on their way north to the fertile Willamette Valley. Gold seekers, coming and going to California, or on their way to the nearby tent town called Table Rock City (Jacksonville), came through as well. A handful of men, though, some fresh from the California goldfields, sought a more stable way of making a living and decided that outfitting those afflicted with gold fever might prove more profitable. Over time, mills, a Chautauqua, a lithia water experiment, a railroad terminal, a college, and finally an award-winning Shakespeare festival with an eight-and-a-half-month season, coupled with numerous "best places to retire" articles, have culminated in Ashland becoming a destination in itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738571027
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	07/15/2009
Series:	Images of America Series
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	631,558
Product dimensions:	6.54(w) x 9.28(h) x 0.37(d)

About the Author

Author Joe Peterson has taught both history and education courses at Southern Oregon University and has managed Teaching American History federal grants for the Southern Oregon Education Service District. For this volume, he gathered historic photographs primarily from the extensive private collection of lifelong Ashland resident Terry Skibby.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 6

Introduction 7

1 A Town Called Ashland Mills 9

2 Driving a Golden Spike in Ashland! 31

3 A Cultural Mecca? 51

4 Lithia Water and a Park 67

5 One Man's Stubborn Tenacity-Shakespeare in the Woods! 93

6 The Reinvention of Ashland, Oregon 107

Bibliography 127

Editorial Reviews

Title: Our Hometown Authors
Author: Alissa Lukara
Publisher: Ashland Magazine
Date: July 2009

We are such stuff as dreams are made on," says Shakespeare's Prospero in The Tempest. Southern Oregon, with its own Shakespeare festival, was also shaped by its early dreamers. Dreamers such as those who brought lumber mills, the railroad and other businesses to found Ashland; the tenacious visionary of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Angus Bowmer; the dreamers who surveyed the area and created the maps that paved the way for settlers and more, as the following hometown authors can attest.

"Ashland's history reflects an amazing spirit and resiliency," said Joe Peterson, author of Ashland (Arcadia Publishing, 2009). "It's gone through boom and bust times that would have caused many small towns to become drab or even die out. But Ashland always found a way to move forward."

Ashland began as a crossroads stopover for people going somewhere else, according to Peterson, who has taught history and education at SOU and managed Teaching American History federal grants for the Southern Oregon Education Service District. "Farmers traveling to the farm lands of the Willamette Valley and gold seekers traveling to what is now Jacksonville would stop off here. Today, the town is a destination in its own right."

How did this happen? A small group of entrepreneurs, many of them former gold seekers, decided they could make a more stable living by providing travelers with lumber, equipment, food, outfitting and supplies. "Eventually, the railroad came through, a Chautauqua summer program was established and Lithia Park was built," said Peterson, whose new book has over 200 photographs, mostly from Terry Skibby's vast collection, amassed over 40 years. "Then, the railroad pulled out and went to Klamath Falls. The Chautauqua circuit ended and Ashland went through depressed economic times."

The town re-invented itself. "Eventually, tourism became the focus. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival came, then, an influx of hippy entrepreneurs, kinder, gentler capitalists. Each helped boost Ashland's economy." Peterson loves writing local history. "It's my way of becoming part of the community." For further information: www.arcadiapublishing.com.

From the Publisher