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Josephine County Historical Society

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Grants Pass, OR
Josephine County Historical Society

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Working to preserve the history of Josephine County and Southern Oregon

11/06/2026

Fifty years ago this week, an announcement came over the speakers at the Grants Pass vs. Medford home football game. The announcer said Mel Ingram (1903-1979), who was in attendance, would be inducted into the National High School Athletic Coaches Association Football Hall of Fame in January1977. We can only imagine that the crowd went wild to hear of the honor for the man who coached high school football for 40 years and retired in 1968 after 22 years at GPHS. Ingram’s GPHS record included four state championships, not including his undefeated 1950 Cavemen team that was denied a playoff spot because the district representative was elected that year by a regional vote. And yes, Mel Ingram Field is named after the highly respected athlete and coach.

11/03/2026

There were often more tricks than treats on some past Halloween nights in Grants Pass. The Nov. 1, 1906 Courier reported that “many gates have been removed from their hinges.” In 1916, “Halloween celebrators” were thought to be behind a mysterious fire at a previously burned home on Foundry Street. In 1946, city police reported the soaping of downtown business windows. However, things got a bit more serious in 1956 when Otis Johnson, principal of the junior high school, reported that “two holes were shot in the glass of the large front door” of the school. That night, an outhouse also appeared on the lawn of the Josephine County Courthouse! The outhouse prank, attributed to local teens, was popular at the time and occurred in many small towns.

10/30/2026

On Halloween Eve, here’s a somewhat unsettling c. 1905 photo of L.B. Hall sitting in his downtown Grants Pass funeral home office. The prominent placement of the safe, which features Hall’s name, is interesting. The street-facing windows feature funeral floral arrangements. And check out the stacks of paperwork hanging on the left wall hooks. Looks like business was brisk. Happy Halloween!

10/27/2026

The caption for this undated promotional photo reads, “Some pumpkins and squash on the fruit farm of Penn-Oregon Orchards Co. in Grants Pass, Oregon.” Although the gentleman in the center is dressed much like Charlie Chaplin’s “Little Tramp” character, the photo likely predates the Little Tramp films and simply represents men’s fashion of the day. Penn-Oregon Orchards Co. distributed promotional material like this photo, which was used as a postcard, in 1910 to attract investors. Chaplin created the Little Tramp in 1914.

10/23/2026

Hold onto your hat and watch out for falling rocks! We believe this undated, unidentified photo from our collection shows some dapper folks driving along the early Merlin-Galice Road in the late 1910s or early 1920s. Just think about the care and planning (not to mention balance!) it took to capture this photo with the equipment of that era!

10/20/2026

Fishing is all in the family in this c.1929 promotional photo for Grants Pass as a premier fishing destination. We love how the ladies and children dressed up in their "Sunday best" (despite the large fish they are showing off) for this photo.

10/16/2026

From 1894 to 1912, the Grants Pass City Hall was located at 311 SE 6th St., the current home of Plaza Sewing and the longtime home of the Golden Rule store. The building also served as a fire station and jail. Around the year 1900, the volunteer firefighters’ recreation room was repurposed as a much-needed classroom for 65 fifth-graders. However, this arrangement quickly became problematic. Not only did some of the kids frequently sneak up to the bell tower (no longer part of the structure) to ring the fire alarm bell, but some also threw rocks at prisoners in the jail cells below their makeshift classroom. Perhaps the confident-looking young lady in our photo was one of the mischievous perpetrators?

10/13/2026

On the morning of Oct. 12, 1962, the Columbus Day Storm, also called the "Big Blow," slammed into the Pacific Northwest Coast with the energy of a Category 3 hurricane. Originating from the remnants of Typhoon Freda, the storm is reported to have been the most powerful extratropical cyclone ever to hit the western United States. At Cape Blanco, Oregon, wind gusts reached 145 mph, and other recorded gusts in our state reached 170 mph. Although Oregon’s worst wind damage occurred along the Coast and in the Willamette Valley, Josephine County was not left unscathed. The winds caused widespread property damage and knocked out phone and power lines throughout the county. The Daily Courier reported that violent winds “hit the airport with such force that two airplanes were wrecked when one broke away from its moorings and crashed into another, making a pile of wreckage.” Here are two photos that show some of the wind damage to local buildings.

10/09/2026

Did you know Grants Pass once had a mining school? With $25,000 in funds from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Oregon offered a free vocational mining school at the Josephine County Fairgrounds in 1936. More than 800 students (some of them pictured here) registered for the school in hopes of obtaining a $50 grubstake from the state upon graduation. The hands-on classes included training in geology, assay work, practical hydraulics, hard-rock mining, carpentry and blacksmithing. Students were required to report their findings to the state’s new Department of Geology and Mineral Industries for the purpose of creating detailed mineral maps of Josephine County. Although records show no big gold strikes from the school, an article in The Sunday Oregonian from February 9, 1936 reports that graduates learned enough skills to keep them in “beans and bread” during the Depression. Oregon Governor Charles Martin championed the project, saying he hoped Grants Pass would become the "Denver of Oregon and California" due to its rich mineral resources. Funding for the project was extended through 1937 before it concluded.

10/06/2026

Here is a Depression-era photo and advertisement for Kumfy Kamp, a roadside auto camp for Redwood Highway travelers visiting the Oregon Caves or heading to or from the Coast. The Cave Junction business, which opened in 1937, featured a dining room billed as “a wee bit better than the best” and claimed overnight guests would “know the joy of living.” An article in the Illinois Valley News from May 12, 1938 encouraged readers to visit the establishment, stating, “Rates are such, surroundings and accommodations so pleasant that a stay with them is a pleasure.”

Address

Josephine County Historical Society , 512 SW 5th Street
Grants Pass, OR
97526

Opening Hours

Tuesday	10am - 4pm
Wednesday	10am - 4pm
Thursday	10am - 4pm
Friday	10am - 4pm

Telephone

(541) 479-7827

Website

http://www.josephinehistory.org/

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