Affiliate Spotlight

Jacksonville Woodlands Association

Richard H. Engeman, editor
with assistance from Larry Smith

Jacksonville Woodlands Association P.O. Box 1210 Jacksonville, Oregon 97530 Phone 541-899-7402 (Larry Smith) E-mail: info@jvwoodlands.org Web site: http://www.jvwoodlands.org/ OHS Affiliate since 2003
In 1966, the National Park Service designated much of the city of Jacksonville as a National Historic Landmark District, the first such district in Oregon. Jacksonville is a remarkably well-preserved example of a nineteenth-century western mining camp and agricultural center.	1
Maintaining the integrity of the historic district has been no easy task. In recent years, population growth has threatened an important aspect of Jacksonville's historic fabric: the backdrop of hills and open spaces that contain the remnants of historic placer-mining sites and other aspects of its history as a mining town. The distinctive forest and plant life surrounding Jacksonville are also at risk from increased development.	2
The Jacksonville Woodlands Association (JWA)was founded in 1989 by a group of Jacksonville citizens concerned about preserving and protecting the landmark's surrounding natural habitat. According to Larry Smith, a retired teacher who is one of the association's founders, the catalyst for the formation of the organization was the proposed sale of the Beekman Woods, a twenty-one-acre wooded area around the historic home of pioneer banker C.C. Beekman. The association arranged for the City of Jacksonville to purchase the land from the University of Oregon and raised the funds for the purchase.	3
In an innovative string of negotiations, the association facilitated the purchase or donation of twenty properties and easements containing more than three hundred acres. In 1997, to consolidate and solidify its efforts, the JWA began working with the National Park Service's Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program to develop a management plan. Other project partners have included Jacksonville Elementary School, the Oregon Native Plant Society, the Trust for Public Land, the U. S. Forest Service, and the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy.	4
Howard Johnson, photographer, courtesy JWA The association offers guided hikes of Rich Gulch and the Jacksonville Woodlands. In this photograph, taken in April 2003, a group stands near the Chinese Diggings Trail, part of the Rich Gulch Historic Mining District.
The management agreements among the City of Jacksonville, Jackson County, the Bureau of Land Management, and the JWA have resulted in a chain of properties connected by woodland trails and city pathways and marked with interpretive signs that help protect a variety of natural and historic features. The Beekman Woods, for example, comprises a forest of madrone, Oregon white oak, and ponderosa pine and habitat for the endangered Gentner's fritillary, a native lily. Similar flora grows in the Jacksonville Cemetery, a serene hillside with gravestones dating from the 1850s.	5
Historic sites owned by the City of Jacksonville and the Bureau of Land Management and managed by the association include the place where gold was first discovered on Jackson Creek in 1851 and the ditches and cliffs that remain from hydraulic mining operations in Rich Gulch, such as the Petard Ditch and the Chinese Diggings. The grounds of the estate of Peter and Amelia Britt — including the Britt Woods, Britt Ridge, and Britt Park, the site of a summer music festival — are also included in the managed lands.	6
The JWA helps preserve and interpret an important historical resource, one that is often overlooked in historic preservation efforts. The public trails and walkways provide new paths to understanding the past in Jacksonville.	7

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