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The Infamous Black Bird Southern Oregon History, Revised


Bear Creek
Notes on the history of Bear Creek, in Jackson County, Oregon.


Shasta Indian name for Bear Creek: Ussoho
Roland B. Dixon, "The Shasta," Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 1907


Upper Takelma name for Bear Creek: Si-ku-ptat, "dirty water"
John P. Harrington, in Dennis J. Gray, The Takelma and Their Athapaskan Neighbors, 1987

Dated 1889--most likely an irrigation ditch off Jackson Creek or Bear Creek.

    Originally nearly all of the floor of the central valley, except what is known as the "Desert," was covered with a growth of pine, oak, laurel, manzanita, and ceanothus, while along the stream bottoms occurred a heavy growth of cottonwood, alder and brush. Many of the streams are still fringed with a growth of trees and brush, but the larger part of the level lands in the valley have been cleared and the native growth replaced by cultivated fields and orchards, only a few small woodlots remaining to indicate the presence of the former forest.
A. T. Strahorn, et al., Soil Survey of the Medford Area, Oregon, 1911, page 7
LIVING PICTURES ON BEAR CREEK
    Two young women and a lad about eighteen showed to a full bank on Bear Creek yesterday afternoon. The lad was dressed in regulation bathing costume. The young women were not so regular. They could not swim, and removed their shoes and stockings preparatory to deep wading. They lifted their garments and waded in. The deeper they waded the higher the garments were pulled. The spectators encored the performance. The lassies smiled and continued to wade. One of the [illegible] his interested observation, was accused of rubbering. Yes, he rubbered, while another, just a simple, modest Sunday school lad, viewed for the first time a sight he never saw before. He said, "He, he." Another spectator was a long, green product from the headwaters of Bear. He 'lowed it beat anything he ever saw. He blushed a backwoods blush and pulled his cap down.
    The waders came ashore and stretched their bare limbs out in the sun to dry. This was another interesting performance. It brought a cheer from the Sunday school kid, while the man from the headwaters shed tears like a sugar maple during a thaw. A snapshot picture was made showing four pairs of legs without even skin-tight garments to cover the extremities. When the Sun artist has time to develop the pictures it hopes to make a halftone picture for its readers. The only regret is that the Sunday school kid and the tearful fellow from headwater will not appear in the background of the picture.
Medford Sun, April 23, 1911, page 5
Origin of Bear Creek Name Recounted
(By June McMillen Ordway in Sunday's Oregonian)
    "Well, if you are writing of Bear Creek, just say it flows through the most beautiful country God ever made, and you'll have it all right."
    Thus spoke a friend when informed that the late Captain James H. McMillen was one of a party of pioneers who gave this name to the stream in 1851, before it was spanned by the great concrete bridge and before Medford was ever through of [as] a "boom town." On Table Rock in 1851 a battle took place between a small party of whites and a band of Rogue River Indians. Several packers had been killed near this point by Indians, while on their way with flour, bacon and butter to the miners at Yreka, Cal. Among those killed was Lieutenant James Stewart. His body was buried hastily near the scene of battle and the letters J. S. were carved in the bark of a large oak tree near the grave. Then a fire was kindled on the grave, beef bones and brush were burned upon it and later horses were led over the spot, so as to obliterate the appearance of a grave. Otherwise the Indians would have removed the clothing and blanket in which the body was wrapped.
    Later, Governor Joseph Lane had Stewart's body removed to Vancouver, Wash., for final burial.
    About this time the late Joseph McMillen, father of Captain James M. McMillen, with a number of men, one of whom was Calvin C. Reed, were returning from Yreka, Cal., with ox wagons. When nearing the shore of the stream they saw three grizzly bears leave the carcass of an ox and run into the dense thicket at the roadside. Two horsemen rode, who had three dogs with them. The dogs were sent into the brush in quest of the bears. They returned quickly, yelping at a great rate. One of the bears, which was wounded by a rifle shot from one of the horsemen, rushed out of the thicket and, seeing Reed standing by the ox team, charged him. Reed had just borrowed a double-barrel shotgun belonging to Joseph McMillen, and when but a few feet from the bear he fired, killing the beast. The other two were dispatched quickly and their bodies were left in the road. As the men resumed their journey someone remarked, "We will christen this stream 'Bear Creek'."
    The christening of Bear Creek was but one of many incidents of 1851 in Southern Oregon. Every man was said to be a hero, and the women were as brave as the men in that unsettled part of the state. They were brave and gallant; as only such had the hardihood to endure the perils and hardships encountered in reaching this "promised land." Whenever danger threatened any portion of the new community all were ready to rush to its defense without regard to personal danger or pecuniary loss.
Medford Mail Tribune, November 10, 1913, page 4   See Bill Miller's story for a much more accurate account of Captain Stuart's death--for which the creek was named Stuart Creek.


    On father’s claim in a bend of Bear Creek was one camp of Chief Sam of whom I have already spoken, under the shade of the great spreading red oak trees just across from our home.  There he and his people spent much time.  One morning the Chief came over and told my mother that his boy was going to die, very sick.  In sympathy for a sick boy she went with Sam, entered the tepee and there found not a boy but a grown man, who was as Sam had said very sick.  He was starving.  They could prepare no food that he could assimilate.  She prepared food that was suitable, gave him medicine, visited him two or three times daily for a time, and one day the Chief came to express his gratitude saying that his boy was well and also saying to father “she has a good heart.”
Walter Scott Gore 1852-1943, manuscript memoirs in the possession of great-great-granddaughter Marty Mielen Monroe

Bear Creek Tamed
     To the Editor: Regardless of where our fortunes be cast, to value the present we must know the past. For instance, when crossing Bear Creek on one of its handy, dependable bridges, take a look at its well-contained and tamed waters. 'Twasn't always that-a-way, not by a jugful of of tens of millions of 'em. That peaceful-looking stream has been as unpredictable and cantankerous as the ornery critter it's named after.
    When Elijah B. Gore and family arrived in 1852, its channel was said to be up near the Community Hospital. Amazon-like, later on it decided to flow near where Elijah's son Ed now lives at 116 Geneva St. Fact is, as Mr. Gore remarked, it had several channels, none of them very permanent, coursing through a morass of trees, brush and swamp grass "so thick a dog could scarce penetrate," as Homer Harvey of 1880 coming put it.
    Fording Bear Creek and other valley streams was ever risky, especially during winter rains and spring freshets. Saddle and harness horses, wagons as well as human life was lost. The ford at old Gasburg [Phoenix] was best, being wide, shallow and firm-bottomed. But that was a long way around going to Jacksonville or downriver points. A prod pole was usually taken along to feel out any treacherous hole in its shifty bed. Early bridges were so uncertain that a ford was kept at McAndrews crossing as late as the close of World War I. County Engineer Paul Rynning built one there that endured till the one of concrete was built two years ago.
    The very first one of timbers pressured for and built by the county, oldtimers say, was never used. Bear Creek, changing its course, left it out in a clearing where it "melted" away with settlers' need of plank or timber. [This may be a recollection of the 1886 footbridge. There's no known record of a vehicle bridge being abandoned.] County commissioners' journals of 100 years ago are filled with petitions for viewers to view out new county roads or a bridge, followed by settlers paying county dads for damages by new roads across their properties. [The inverse was the case.] The first one found by this writer was built in 1854 across Little Butte Creek. A couple of years later two were petitioned for where Medford is now, one to be known as the "creek bridge," 125 feet long, and the other "the slough" bridge," 165 feet long. [There was no county road at Medford until the 1880s.] Was this the slough just south of Main St. where Medfordites used to hunt ducks? Anyway, Bear Creek is tamed, for the present at least.
            F. J. Clifford
            1211 West Main St.
Medford Mail Tribune, June 8, 1954
Bear Creek Eight Feet Deep at Corey's Grocery
    In 1854, my father and his brother came to Medford from the Willamette Valley. That spring a flood swept down Bear Creek. The water extended from the present west bank of Bear Creek to the foot of the hospital hill.
    By measuring the driftwood in the trees then out on the level at the present location of Corey's Grocery [529 East Main--today's Hawthorne Park], the depth of the water was found to be eight feet.
    Two men by the names of Dover and Lewis had a large herd of cattle grazing on the east side of Bear Creek. These cattle were all swept down the stream and drowned.
    Several years ago Bear Creek broke through the southeast corner of Earhart's place [near Barnett], on the east side of the creek, and quite a stream passed through the old channel across the proposed school site.
(Signed)          S. P. BARNEBURG
Medford Mail Tribune, May 14, 1925, page 6


    [In 1856] The Davenports were living in Gassburg when Olive Oatman was rescued from the Indians and lived with her relatives there for a time. She and Florinda, "Tim's wife," were great chums, and Olive gave Mrs. D. and several other women friends exhibitions of her swimming prowess in Bear Creek, teaching some of them swimming lessons there.
Orson Stearns, Reminiscences of Pioneer Days and Early Settlers of Phoenix and Vicinity, 1921


    I think father and Uncle Emory [Gore] went about building the sawmill [on Bear Creek near South Stage Road] as soon as fairly settled in their new home.  The family moved out to the claim when I was six months old, so 1853 was more than half gone before they had been fairly settled, thus the mill must not have been ready for use before late 1854.  They sold lumber all over the valley.  The great flood of December 1861 washed much of the mill and the logs away and so changed the creek channel that the mill was never rebuilt.
Walter Scott Gore 1852-1943, manuscript memoirs in the possession of great-great-granddaughter Marty Mielen Monroe

    In 1861 "the channel of Bear Creek was narrow, and ran through Medford about the place where John Mann's house now stands [at 815 East Main]. The flood was exceptionally bad because of the narrow channel, and the present channel was cut at that time."
"Charley Strang is 'Vet' of Veterans," Medford News, March 30, 1934, page 1


    Mr. W[illiam] Gore, though less than two years old at the time, retains a clear memory of the flood of 1862 and described his sensations at seeing his father's sawmill floating down the creek which at normal times had supplied its power. He also told his recollections of the rescue of two fat hogs from their floating pen.
Alfred Segsworth, Works Progress Administration Survey of State and Local Historical Records, 1936-1937
    On the 15th there was a waterspout or cloudburst about four miles from Ashland, Jackson County. A small brook emptying into Bear Creek was swelled to a depth of eight or ten feet and to a width of fifty, bearing down driftwood, fences and great boulders.
Morning Oregonian, Portland, May 23, 1877, page 4

The 1883 Medford plat shows Bear Creek running considerably east of today's course (lower left corner of image).


    P. W. Olwell's sons have a fish trap in Bear Creek, in Phoenix, with which they have taken a large number of fine salmon trout this spring. The fish find a ready market here and at Jacksonville.
"Brevities," Ashland Tidings, May 2, 1884, page 3


    Medford (Or. & C.)--Bear cr. nearby. Trout and salmon; May and June best months; hotel $2 p. d. See Phoenix, Oregon.
    Phoenix (Or. & C.)--Bear cr. ½ m.; salmon and trout, salmon in majority; baits--salmon eggs for trout (flies not used by local anglers), and the spear for salmon; hotels charge $1.50 p. d.; guides and boats not needed.
William Harris, The Angler's Guide Book and Tourists' Gazetteer of the Fishing Waters of the United States and Canada, The American Angler, 1885
Cold Weather.
    During the past week we have experienced the coldest weather known in Southern Oregon for a great many years. . . . Rogue River, Applegate, Butte, Bear, Evans and other creeks have been frozen over during the week, for the second time in the memory of "the oldest inhabitant."
Excerpt, Democratic Times, Jacksonville, January 20, 1888, page 3


    J. B. Riddle has gathered several tons of ice from Bear Creek, which he has stored for summer use.
"Medford Squibs," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, January 27, 1888, page 3


    Fish from Bear Creek find ready sale in this market. P. W. Olwell's sons find no trouble in disposing of all they bring in.
"Here and There," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, March 23, 1888, page 3


    The county commissioners will probably authorize the building of a bridge across Bear Creek near Medford. This structure should be built, by all means, as it is needed, especially in the winter.
Democratic Times, Jacksonville, August 16, 1888, page 2
    The bridge contractors quit work last Saturday and telegraphed to San Francisco for instructions whether or not to proceed and entail certain risks to the contractors. High water in Bear Creek interfered with properly laying the mud sills. A story is afloat, to the effect that the contractors attempted to bribe the contractor's representative, Mr. Daley, to allow them to place the superstructure on an insecure foundation. We trust that the report is not true, however, and that the bridge will progress towards early completion.
"Medford Squibs," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, December 6, 1888, page 3


    The ditch leading from Bear Creek to [Medford], which will furnish our town with a fine supply of water, is nearly completed. It will prove of much benefit to our town.
"Medford Squibs," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, March 14, 1889, page 3
Low Water.
    The streams everywhere are lower than ever known in the history of this section since first settled by white men, at this season of the year. Rogue River itself is a mere creek compared with its usual June volume, while Bear Creek is well-nigh dry, and the lesser tributaries are but reminiscences of water courses.
Excerpt, Democratic Times, Jacksonville, July 4, 1889, page 1


    A violent thunder and hail storm visited the upper portion of Bear Creek Valley Tuesday evening last, doing considerable damage in the grain fields and orchards in the vicinity of Wagner Creek. A culvert washed out in the railroad near there and delayed the southbound train for several hours yesterday morning. Bear Creek rose very rapidly for a short time, but the waters soon subsided. Hail fell to the depth of several inches in a limited area.
    The waterspout in the neighborhood of Wagner Creek caused Bear Creek to become a raging torrent within a few minutes, and it continued high for some hours. Such was the amount of hail that fell that slush ice was floating in Rogue River yesterday morning, having been swept by the rising waters from many miles up Bear Creek. The rise in that stream is said to have been fully ten feet. There was enough precipitation to have supplied the whole valley, had it been properly distributed.
"Here and There," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, July 11, 1889, page 3


     Pot-hunters along Bear Creek are causing some complaint among farmers in that vicinity. Carelessness in handling firearms frequently causes loss and injury to stock.
"Here and There," Democratic Times, Jacksonville, November 21, 1889, page 3

"Clutter & Co., the Medford artists, prepared a series of flood photos, showing the Bear Creek bridge when the water was at its highest and Hammon's barn still standing on the further side, and subsequent pictures showing the bridge in various stages of demolition after the barn had fallen. ---Democratic Times, Jacksonville, February 13, 1890.
When Ed Wilkinson Went Down with the Bridge
    Something like thirty-three or thirty-four years ago [in February 1890] when Bear Creek was up to a height that it took some of the buildings downstream, one barn on the east side that was filled with hay went out, with the chickens floating downstream on bunches of hay.
    The wagon bridge on Main Street, and also the footbridge, went out when Ed Wilkinson, standing on the latter, went down with the bridge into the water and lost his umbrella. This would have been a bad time for a high school on this low land. I hope it will never come again like that, but it still rains in Oregon. The stream was wide and covered some of the ground on the east side.
    We are sure the soil is good on that side, for it has been washed in by high waters. . . . In this flood I helped swing the box across the creek to bring the people over. The old creek has been some menace to the public most every spring.
W. M. DAVIS
Medford Mail Tribune, May 14, 1925, page 6


    Then, as now, the duties of the fire department were not only to fight fire, and when the big flood of the '90s reached Medford, the firemen were the first at salvage work. It was told how one fireman, as the Main Street bridge left its moorings and swept downstream, tied a rope to it from an apple tree. When the rope tightened it snapped like a string. A barn, with haystack, chickens and all, came floating downstream, the firemen recalled.
"City's First Fire Lads Swap Tales," Medford Mail Tribune, March 12, 1935, page 2

RECALLS MEDFORD WHEN WHEAT
SOLD 30 CENTS A BUSHEL
    It was just 30 years ago last Tuesday night that [Mr. and Mrs. N. S. Bennett] arrived in Medford from their old home near Keokuk, Iowa, with the intention of staying here a year if they liked it. They have been here ever since. Medford was a small village then, and the site of the Farmers & Fruitgrowers Bank was out in the suburbs covered with scrub oak and chapparal. There was then three inches of snow on the ground, and then [with] the developments of the next few days and month the newly arrived Iowans did not fall in love with Medford.
    The following Saturday it began to snow, and before it let up there was 17¼ inches of snow on the ground. The weather was not so cold at that time as during the recent big snowfall, which amounted to a foot, and if Mr. Bennett's memory serves him right the thermometer stood about 8 degrees above zero, whereas during the recent snowfall it was about 10 degree below.
    The majority of this great depth of snow, although it thawed a little and snowed a little several times, remained on the ground about a month, and then when it did go away [in February 1890] rather suddenly caused big flood conditions, and the Bear Creek bridge was washed away by the raging torrent.
    The business part of Medford was on this side of the creek, and to enable the farmers living in the territory across the stream to come across a cable was rigged up over the torrent. The farmers drove to the other side in their stick carts, consisting of rear wheels of a wagon attached to a wagon pole, and then were pulled across in a big basket attached to the cable.
    Due to the flood conditions in Oregon and California at that time Mr. Bennett says the train service was demoralized in both directions, and because of washouts in the Cow Creek Canyon and the Sacramento Valley there was no through train service from January 26 to February 26, and no mail was received from the east and west during that time.
Excerpt, Medford Mail Tribune, January 9, 1920, page 6


    "People forget things," [D. T.] Lawton said, "but I remember when the Bear Creek bridge washed out and you could swim a horse clear to the Hospital hill. I remember, too, when water would come down from Griffin Creek and Jacksonville and flood the west end of Medford. They used to have to dismiss school at the old Washington School, where the courthouse is now, because of the water."
Medford News, January 5, 1934, page 1


    The city water tank is kept running day and night now by engineers E. G. Hurt and H. E. Baker. A dam has been placed in Bear Creek making a headworks to keep a good flow of water in the ditch supplying the water tank and thus insuring a fair pressure in the water works in case of a fire these dry times.
Southern Oregon Mail, September 16, 1892, page 3


    Medford people who reside in the vicinity of the Seventh Street Bear Creek bridge wish us to gently call the attention of the city board to the fact that the small boys are making of that particular portion of Bear Creek a swimming resort and in too close proximity to their respective places of abode--and that these swimmers are more scantily attired than is considered within the boundaries of even a slight degree of modesty. If on the opposite side of  the river from the city is outside the limits a state law "made and provided for in such case" should be resorted to.
"All the Local News," Medford Mail, July 28, 1893, page 3


     The bridge over Bear Creek at Medford was broken [in the flood Saturday] and will have to be rebuilt or a new and better bridge put in its place. The large bridge at Central Point was also badly crippled up, and cannot be used. The channel of the creek was so changed that it can be forded without the bridge now.
Excerpt, "The Work of the Flood," Valley Record, Ashland, Oregon, January 18, 1894, page 3
    The county court, at their last session, decided that if the city of Medford would repair the Bear Creek bridge temporarily, they would make permanent improvements to both bridge and channel as soon as the water gets low enough to perform effective work.
"All the Local News," Medford Mail, February 16, 1894, page 3


    Walter Anderson has devised means whereby he is enabled to water his garden that--while not especially novel or unique--at least shows enterprise. He has placed a water wheel in Bear Creek, below the Seventh Street bridge. The wheel is so arranged that by means of a rope belt, to which are attached tin buckets, water is elevated to an altitude greater than his garden spot. A trough is made fast to the top of the wheel frame and from that point it extends to his garden, a couple of hundred feet away, where the water is discharged and the same used for irrigating purposes. It is not unreasonable to suppose that this method of irrigating the land in close proximity to the creek may become general should Mr. Anderson's experiment prove entirely successful--and there's no good reason why it should not.
Medford Mail, July 3, 1896, page 37

Bulkheads Save the P.&E. Site
    The old channel of Bear Creek runs under a house just west of Corey's Grocery.
. . . This old channel can easily be seen from the rear of the lot.
    In 1900 a flood began to cut through the old channel. Two different times in the early history of Medford they took up subscriptions to build bulkheads to keep the water from following its old channel. (It did break through near Cottage Street, and, no doubt, such men as H. T. Nicholson, Charles Strang, Hubbard brothers, the Lawtons, Dr. Pickel, Ed Wilkinson and Jackson County Bank will remember contributing to this fund.)
T. E. POTTENGER
Medford Mail Tribune, May 14, 1925, page 6


    For the seven days ending Monday morning 5.54 inches of rain fell, according to the record kept at the Southern Pacific depot. This is the heaviest rainfall of the season or even for several seasons past. Medford was practically under water Saturday afternoon; all the drains were filled to overflowing and water backed up in every low place in the city. Bear Creek rose three feet in less than 12 hours and at one time was raising at the rate of five inches per hour. For the 24 hours ending Saturday morning the precipitation was 1.30 inches.
    Bear Creek always has had a fashion of laying out new channels for itself during high water, and this season has not forgotten its old tricks. A. H. Walker is grieving over the fact that his summer bathing place has been spoiled. Just behind his place of residence was a thick line of willows, with a bank on the other side, the creek running between. In the summer evenings, thus safely screened from observation, Mr. Walker was wont to take a cooling bath after the labors of the day. Now, he says, that is all past. When the high water went down the willows were on the other side of the creek. At the Phipps place the creek has changed its channel, cutting across one corner of the place.
"City Happenings," Medford Mail, January 30, 1903


    Dr. Reddy [1907-1908] was mayor in the days when we drank Bear Creek "liquid." It was generally liquid.
Excerpt, Minnie (Mrs. Harry C.) Stoddard, "Medford's Hall of Fame," Medford Mail Tribune, December 18, 1912, page 4
SURVEYING FOR A DAM
    John D. Olwell and others, who are promoting the enterprise of which mention was made some time ago, that promises to be of infinite value to the farming territory for a large area north and west of Ashland, have succeeded, it is now reported, in interesting a wealthy New York syndicate in the scheme to construct a fine cement dam across Bear Creek, at a point about 1½ miles north of Ashland, where the banks stand about 20 or 30 feet above the water. The location is an ideal spot for the construction of a dam, says the Tidings.
    This syndicate, through their representative, Mr. Olwell, has already been granted an option to buy a large tract of land in the vicinity of the proposed dam, and has a Portland company making the necessary surveys preparatory to beginning work on the dam.
Central Point Herald, October 11, 1906, page 4
BEAR CREEK ON RAMPAGE
    The continued rainstorm which began at midnight Saturday and lasted without interruption until Monday morning resulted in the highest water that has been experienced in this valley for several years. Bear Creek reached the highest stage Monday morning that had been reached for several years and considerable damage was caused by the flood cutting its banks and encroaching on adjacent farms. The bridge just east of town also suffered to a considerable extent, one of the steel caissons which supports the steel span of the structure being undermined until it settled almost two feet.
    Some damage was also reported from different parts of the valley in the way of the washing away of fences, culverts, etc., but aside from the damage occasioned by Bear Creek the loss will be nominal.
Excerpt,Central Point Herald, March 21, 1907, page 1

Looking west, circa 1907.
Water Supply in Rogue River Valley.
    The upper end of the valley is drained by Bear Creek and its tributaries. This stream is subject to heavy winter floods, but becomes almost dry in summer, and the low-water flow has been practically all appropriated. Any scheme to increase the acreage under irrigation must therefore involve the construction of storage works or long, highline ditches from the streams of the lower part of the valley, where there is a great summer flow.
Excerpt from U.S. Geological Survey bulletin, Central Point Herald, September 5, 1907, page 3
OUR CITY WATER
    Was there any water ever made dirtier than now being pumped through the city water works?
    Is it possible for water to contain any more solid matter and still remain liquid?
    Is it any wonder that meters don't work, that water pipes fill up and that people drink booze and go unwashed?
    Bear Creek in all its mud-carrying career never was muddier than now, and this solution of mother earth is retailed, without an effort at settling or filtering, to consumers.
    If Medford cannot afford a good supply of pure mountain water, and people must continue to use the liquid soil of Bear Creek, and filtration is too costly, a large settling basin or series of settling basins should be built, so that the silt in the water may have a chance to be deposited somewhere besides in the family wash basins and bathtubs.
    It is a serious question whether to sell such stuff as water is not a violation of the pure food law, as well as obtaining money under false pretenses.
Medford Daily Tribune, December 27, 1907, page 2
Controlling Bear Creek.
    A few small pieces of work done along Bear Creek last fall to try and turn the channel shows what might be done to save much valuable land lying along that stream, if the work was done on a more extensive scale. E. Gibbs built a dam or breakwater--this was built of brush and boulders placed slightly across the current--thus shielding the bank and turning the current, that has stood the high water so far. The secret of success seems to be that the water flowing over the obstruction must fall upon brush, or something that will not allow the washing away of the gravel below the dam thus built and the clearing of drifts and all obstructions in the way of a straight channel.--Medford Mail.
Central Point Herald, February 6, 1908, page 1


    After Thursday morning the people of Medford will no longer be compelled to depend upon the water (?) of Bear Creek, as the Fish Lake Company is now prepared to turn the water in at the Bradshaw drop and give the people of Medford pure mountain water.
    For the past two months the successors to the Fish Lake Ditch Company have been at work cleaning the canal, and the city has in consequence been forced to fall back upon Bear Creek water, which was fit for irrigation purposes only.
Excerpt, "No More Bear Creek Water Need Be Used," Medford Mail Tribune (weekly edition), March 24, 1910, page 1
TO BULKHEAD BANKS OF STREAMS
Von der Hellen Has Plan to Offer to State Engineer--
Wishes to Save Heavy Loss to Land Owners
    State Senator-elect H. von der Hellen, who was here during the week, has a plan for protecting land from damage by freshets where the same is traversed by streams. The banks wash away and the courses change frequently. The adjacent land is generally fertile and often expensively improved.
    Mr. von der Hellen proposes to take up the subject with the state engineer and evolve a plan for bulkheading and declaring reclamation districts on petition of property owners.
    Bear Creek and the Applegate are examples of the great harm always possible with spring freshets. Often great quantities of rich soil are carried away, alfalfa fields and gardens ruined and general harm done.
    Hydraulic mining has raised the beds of the streams until they overflow more than they did in the old days, Bear Creek at the Main Street crossing being many feet higher than originally when the freshet of 1862 changed the course of the stream from what is now the western base of Siskiyou Heights to its present course.
Medford Sun, December 18, 1910, page 1
BIG MOTOR AND HOIST FOR FACTORY
Concrete Construction Company to Use Them
for Hoisting Sand and Gravel--Pipe on Display
    A seventy-five-horsepower motor and friction hoist for the Concrete Construction Company, owner of the concrete sewer pipe factory of Medford, arrived and were unloaded from the cars yesterday. The outfit will be used to hoist sand and gravel from the bed of Bear Creek to the bunkers for use in the factory.
    Manager C. J. Semon has placed a fine specimen of eight-inch sewer pipe on display in Olwell's exhibit building. It is one of the strongest and best pieces of pipe ever seen in Medford or any city. Its being the product of a local factory makes its appearance notable and worth seeing.
Medford Sun, March 11, 1911, page 5
DON'T EAT FISH FROM BEAR CREEK
    Physicians are warning residents of the city against fishing in Bear Creek and eating the fish. A short time ago the septic tank, into which the sewer system of the city empties, burst and since that time the sewers have emptied into Bear Creek direct and will continue to do so until the new septic tank, of concrete, has been completed. Sewer-fed fish are not recommended by Dr. Wiley.
    The old septic tank was constructed three or four years ago of wood, and it took only a comparatively short time for the wood to rot out and the tank to give way. The city council recently ordered a new one constructed.
Medford Mail Tribune, May 9, 1912, page 3
CLASS OF EIGHTEEN ARE BAPTIZED IN CREEK
    A class of eighteen converts to their faith was baptized in Bear Creek last Saturday at high noon by the Seventh Day Adventists. The ceremony was most impressive and was attended by a large number of church members.
Medford Mail Tribune, April 14, 1913, page 2
Circa 1913.

POLICE CAPTURE BOOTLEG STILL ON BEAR CREEK
    There was some booze-enforcing excitement in the city last night, caused by the sheriff locating an idle still in the brush along Bear Creek, south of the city, and the arrival of a man with two quarts of whiskey in a suitcase on the late train from the north. These incidents were not connected, only that they were related to the violations of the prohibition law.
    Sheriff Terrill, Deputy Sheriff McMahon and Night Patrolmen Adams and Hempstreet took part in the excitement which started by someone tipping the sheriff off to the fact the still was lying in the brush along Bear Creek. The sheriff and his deputy forthwith went there and pounced upon the still, which was a fine and complete one with coils, lying quietly in a grain sack. Then the arms of the law lay concealed in the vicinity for an hour or more waiting for the owner to come and get it, until they finally decided that he had been tipped off that they were watching for him.
Excerpt, Medford Mail Tribune, April 20, 1921, page 8
EMIGRANT DAM IS READY FOR WATER
New Dam Will Be Subject for Study by Prominent Body of Engineers.
Dam Is an Arch Type, Not Now in Common Use Because of
Difficulty of Construction. Will Be Able to Impound 8,000 Acre-Feet of Water.
    Construction of the Emigrant Creek dam, eight miles southeast of this city, has been completed, and within two weeks the impounding of water in the giant reservoir between this huge dam and the Pacific Highway, an area of 240 acres, will be started, according to engineers of the Talent Irrigation District.
    The houses on the Dodge, Tucker and other ranches in the canyon and valley which will form the reservoir have been torn down, and everything is ready for the storing of the 8,000 acre-feet of water, the capacity of the reservoir, which the engineers' estimate will not only be absolute insurance against serious shortage in any year, such as has been felt during the previous summer, but will provide water for the irrigation of 4,000 acres more than is included in the Talent Irrigation District at present.
Excerpt, Ashland Daily Tidings, October 25, 1924, page 1
HAVE ROUGH TRIP IN EXPLORING
LOCAL BOYS ENJOY DIP IN COLD RIVER WATER
Search Unsuccessful
Swift Current and Taking Wrong Channel Upsets Boat of Searchers
    The following letter sent by Louis Salade Jr. of Central Point to his friend, Col. Ralph B. Croskey, 526 Stephen Girard Bldg., Philadelphia, Pa., tells of a little incident that happened to him and several local boys on a recent trip down the Rogue River in search of a valuable Russian wolfhound, lost by Mr. Salade.
    The story is interesting and the American is indebted to Mr. Salade to publish his letter.
----
Dear Ralph:
    Yesterday we had quite an adventure and experience none of the three of us will forget for a long time.
    It came about like this. Saturday my Russian wolfhound went off with the police pup and never returned, even though the pup came back the following day. So although we have searched most everywhere about this section without a clue as to his whereabouts, I assume he was caught in a trap, probably along Bear Creek. We went along both banks of the creek, where boys are known to have set out traps for miles in both directions, but in several places were not able to even see the creek due to the dense underbrush. Therefore, having no results, I thought the best and only way was to go down the creek by boat. Due to the heavy rains this creek had swollen greatly and some time ago was a raging torrent with logs and all sorts of debris rushing down to the Rogue River, some few miles below here. But now it had gone down to a more normal size, and with care we thought it could be successfully done. So with Leon Boomer, Ed. Boardman, Truman Brenner, all of Central Point and who wanted some excitement, we were fortunate in getting a strong metal-covered flat-bottomed boat, owned by Bert Peck, also of Central Point, and with the three of us aboard we started down Bear Creek.
    The current was much swifter than was at all suspected, and although one of us was at the bow and another at the stern with sort of poles and the third at the oars amidships and pulling upstream, the boat went along entirely too fast for comfort. At a short distance on and where the stream made a split, we took the wrong channel and ran aground in a small rapids, but finally managed to get clear with some pulling and pushing.
    To our surprise, after going on some little distance further and too swiftly at that, due to the strong current, we saw just above the surface what had been the top wire of a barbed-wire fence. We had just come around a bend in the stream and did not have a chance to get to the side in time to reach the bank before hitting the fence. Evidently the risen creek had been so much higher than this fence that the logs, etc. had gone right over this and not torn it away as we expected and had been the case in places where the stream was not so hemmed-in by the high banks.
    So before we knew it, the boat had hit the fence and the current had taken it sidewise and held it against this fence in midstream, causing the water on the upstream side to come over the side and sink the boat several inches below the surface,when, fortunately, the lower wires of the fence against the force of the current held the boat in this position. This saved us from a probable serious catastrophe at least for me, for as you know, in my condition of not being able to handle myself because of my semi-paralyzed side, the situation would have been very trying.
    But with the help of that top wire and some outstretched willow branches, we finally managed to reach the bank by climbing on to a willow tree.
    Wet thoroughly to my waist, and the water was somewhat cold too, my teeth began to chatter and although I hated to give up the trip, realizing my condition I called to the others that they should try to draw the boat up on the bank and get some dry clothes on immediately. But just to show the pluck of those boys, one called back that they would rather try to go on with the journey.
    Unfortunately, I was on the wrong side of the stream and had to go all the way around to the other side by way of the bridge from where we had started, and so walked several miles to my home as quickly as possible.
    The other two companions righted the boat and started once more downstream when they hit a very narrow place where the creek turned around a high bank and capsized, both boys getting wet all over, one disappearing entirely from sight and taken downstream. It was a funny sight to see Leon and Ed. holding onto a willow branch growing from the bank, and he extended at length on the surface of the water, which at this point had an unbelievable strong current. This ended the adventure, for as soon as the boat could be pulled up on the bank, the two hurried back to the house for a complete change.
    Of course there was not much of an opportunity to look for my dog, and almost a week has passed without a sign of him. It goes to show how much a person undergoes for the sake of dumb animals, in particular for a pet dog. I have fairly scoured this part of the valley, and had half a dozen boys helping me to do it, to say nothing of my daughter Helen.
    Wish I were with you to celebrate this Christmas, at least hope this letter will arrive in time to give you my greetings.
    With best wishes for the season to your family from me, I am
As ever yours,
L. A. SALADE, Jr.
Central Point American, December 31, 1926, page 1
RAIN DELUGE WORKS HAVOC
SOUTHERN PACIFIC TRAINS HELD ALONG ROUTE
Damage Is High
    High water in Jackson County lasting several hours, while rivers and creeks went out of their beds, played more or less havoc with farms and cities of the county the first of the week.
    Many homes in the lowlands west of Central Point narrowly escaped damage from the high water. Many small bridges were entirely submerged, and roads were inundated at many points, and made impassible.
    Thirty-eight cabins were washed out at Merrick's camp [site of today's Medford Red Lion].
Worst in History
    Southern Pacific railway men, some of them who have been here with the company for 25 years, declare the storm has rendered unprecedented damage to their line and is the worst in history. Slides and washouts have occurred at numerous points north. The line is also blocked at several points south. The line was out for a distance of 200 years near Bear Creek Orchards, where the grade has been washed out from under the track. It is also reported that part of tunnel 13 at the summit of the Siskiyous had slid in. Several huge rocks were on the track near Steinman and various other blockades occurred in the south.
    At Jackson Hot Springs, water for an eighth of a mile covered the highway to a depth of three feet, and families marooned in cabins were removed in boats. The highway was slightly undermined but not greatly damaged. Tourists' cabins at the resort were wrecked, and two cars ran into the ditch.
    Medford High School closed until Wednesday due to the inability of ten teachers to reach the school.
    Basements of the Medford Center Building, Terminal and Medford hotels, federal building and many smaller buildings flooded and were pumped out, after causing damage to stocks.
    Two Medford campgrounds, built along the banks of Bear Creek, are washed out with heavy property damage when the creek broke over its banks.
Abridged, Ashland American, February 25, 1927, page 1
HIGH WATER CROSSES THE HIGHWAY
AND PAYS A VISIT TO MEDFORD
    Last Sunday all streams in the county were running over their banks.
    A drive up the Pacific Highway was thrilling, and many cars were out "taking in the sights." At Jackson Hot Springs everything was under water, and the creek and mounting streams broke across the pavement in many places. The camp was a lake, the cottages floating and one or two tourists' cars had to be towed out to islands and dry spots.
    Two houses were in the path of the creek, and it is reported that one party had to leave his home altogether to be saved. Another report from an oldtimer states that this was the first time in forty years that the creek has been so high.
    Our sister city of Medford got lots of flood experience. The old "market" building [the public market, 33 South Riverside] was full of water, a creek running out the front door. On Pacific, near Medford's main street, water was hub deep on the automobiles, and some cars couldn't ford the stream. Basements were full of water and high pressure pumps were brought into use.
    Considerable damage to basements, streets, sewers and walks is reported in Medford.
    The weather wasn't cold, but was wet and fine for boating or for ducks.
Ashland American, February 25, 1927, page 4
DUMP MOONSHINE IN CREEK TODAY
    The flow of Bear Creek was enriched by wine and moonshine, valued at $1000, when 126 gallons were dumped into the creek by Deputy Sheriffs Paul and Louis Jennings at McAndrews ford in the presence of several witnesses. The liquor, with the exception of a few gallon jugs, was contained in kegs and 56 gallons of wine taken last week from Louis F. Sanguinetti, south of Ashland, and 60 gallons of moonshine and 10 gallons of wine seized from L. Farnaro. Both men were en route from northern California to Klamath Falls, according to officers, and are now serving sentences in the county jail of two months each.
Medford Mail Tribune, March 4, 1929, page 5
THAT BEAR CREEK SEWER
    During the past week a number of ranchers and property owners owning property or living adjacent to Bear Creek north of Medford have come to us urging that we again publicly call to the attention of the city of Medford the deplorable condition of this creek due to the unsanitary method of sewer disposal that is permitted by said city of Medford. While we have not made a strict survey of the conditions now existing, yet we feel justified in the face of the information at hand to most earnestly urge upon the new city administration the abating of this dangerous menace to health.
    The water in said Bear Creek or sewer at this time is so filthy that it is a disgrace, especially so when same is permitted to go unchanged after the matter has been brought to each succeeding city administration, and it would seem that now is the time to begin to urge upon this administration the utmost importance of immediate action in abating this nuisance.
    The sewerage disposal of Medford has long been a source of menace to many citizens living north of Medford, and were we to have a health survey in Jackson County that was not influenced by politics, the city would find itself facing serious charges from the health department occasioned by the unsanitary conditions of this sewer disposal into Bear Creek.
Excerpt, Pacific Herald, January 29, 1931
CREEK PROJECT GIVEN CWA OKEH
    Approval was received this morning, according to City Engineer Fred W. Scheffel, on the amended application to CWA headquarters of the Bear Creek project, which will include an expenditure of an approximate $18,000.
    The work will include the deepening and widening of the channel, and placing hand-laid rock walls for about 1800 yards from Jackson to Tenth Street.
Excerpt, Medford Mail Tribune, December 12, 1933, page 1
BEAR CREEK WALL BUILT BY CWA AS FLOOD PROTECTION
    Should mother nature in the future pour rain onto the city of Medford with the generosity she has shown [recently] in sections to the north and south, the retaining wall, now under construction under the CWA along the banks of Bear Creek, is expected to do much toward preventing the repetition of flood conditions known here in 1927.
    The fifty men at work on the project, which is one of fifty-three under way in Jackson County, are also changing the channel of the creek, which will do still more toward insuring safety here during high water levels.   
    The rock retaining wall, which will also be an attractive addition to the city, will be constructed from Tenth to Jackson Street on both sides of the creek. The channel will be widened for considerable distance to prevent the breakover, against which constant, although minor, effort has been exerted by the city during the past six years.
    In addition to improving the looks and safety of the Bear Creek region, the CWA workers will level the playground adjacent to the creek on the east side, filling in the corner for a rock garden and parkway.
    All the improvements are being accomplished with hand labor with the exception of the trucking of rocks to the scene of the project. They are loaded and unloaded by hand, keeping the fifty men at work. Picks and shovels and shiny wheelbarrows, synonymous with other times when the United States did not have millions of unemployed, are much in evidence on the grounds, and they are all in motion.
    While the men are receiving the work and their pay in real money every week, the city is at the same time realizing in a gift from the government, as it were, improvements which have long been needed and for which municipal funds would have in time been spent if the CWA had not made them possible during the present. All money expended on the project is coming from Washington, D.C., and most of it is going to hand laborers.
Medford Mail Tribune, January 3, 1934, page 3


    The widening of the Bear Creek channel and erection of a retaining wall is more than half completed, and 90 percent of the street work approved has been done.
"City CWA Work Report Honored to Councilmen," Medford Mail Tribune, February 8, 1934, page 9


    The Bear Creek improvement is now 68 percent complete, and the city is now planning to build a rock wall north of the Bear Creek bridge.
"Benefits to City Under CWA Listed by Supt. Scheffel," Medford Mail Tribune, March 8, 1934, page 10

    "On the Bear Creek project, we hope to complete the rock wall along the west side of the creek to the north line of the Merrick campground," Mr. Scheffel stated.
"3 City Projects Are Favored for CWA Completion," Medford Mail Tribune, March 22, 1934, page 1



BEAR CREEK AND ROXY PARK JOBS FIRST APPROVED
    Ninety-three men started work in the Medford area today, under the State Emergency Relief Administration program, following approval of the first two projects in this district. Thirty-eight are employed on the Bear Creek flood control project and 55 in the Roxy Ann park.
Excerpt, Medford Mail Tribune, April 25, 1934, page 1


    The progress of the [S.E.R.A.] work on the Bear Creek project is complete to the north line of [the] Merrick campground.
"City and County Offices Close Up Today in Jubilee," Medford Mail Tribune, June 7, 1934, page 6
CONTINUING BEAR CREEK SERA WORK
    Work on the project of widening and straightening Bear Creek just north of Jackson Street in Medford is being conducted under the SERA [State Emergency Relief Administration] program, and is expected to be completed in a short time.
    Approximately 50 men are employed there, and are banking the creek on both sides similar to the banking along the Main St. bridge.
    Brush and weeds are being torn out by the men, and the appearance of the stream will be greatly improved.
Medford News, February 22, 1935, page 3
OIL IN CREEK KILLING FISH
    Oil is being dumped into Griffin Creek in such quantities that it will kill any fish life that happens to be in the creek, as well as harm fish life in Bear Creek below the mouth of Griffin Creek, according to farmers living along Griffin Creek.
    The oil appears to be smudge oil.
    As there is a law against dumping oil into streams, the persons responsible are being sought and will be warned against a repetition of the illegal practice.
Medford News, April 9, 1937, page 1
BEAR CREEK PARK POSSIBLE
    Purification of the waters of Bear Creek, through the building of sewage disposal systems at Ashland and Talent, and the recent change in CCC regulations which permit the CCC to accept as a project the building of parks within municipalities, has made possible the start of an extensive park program for Medford. . . .
Excerpt, Medford News, April 8, 1938, page 1
Bear Creek, October 1942
Bear Creek, October 1942
STORM CAUSES FLOOD DAMAGE ABOUT COUNTY
    For once the people of Central Point are all of one mind and opinion and are talking about the same subject, the high water. Early this morning the water was over the railroad track at Kyle's [Restaurant], and a track walker went ahead of the train, we are told.
    Children cannot get to the school house without riding or wearing rubber boots. Even as bad as the reports are, oldtimers according to their stories, have seen it worse. Vintie Beall reports that there was more water on the ground in 1890.
    O. T. Wilson came into Central Point down Beall Lane and crossed the railroad track in a rowboat. Water is running into some Medford stores, it is reported. Many telephone wires are down and lines out. The water is running into the Southern Oregon Sugar Pine Co. office and through the yards. They went into the office in a rowboat.
Abridged, Central Point American, January 21, 1943, page 1


    When the [bean] plants showed signs of sending out runners we went down to Bear Creek below the railroad bridge and cut a whole carload of willow poles about the size of your thumb and six feet long, as well as some longer ones.
A. E. Powell, "Musings," Central Point American, April 29, 1943, page 1


    It has been suggested that a dam be built above Ashland to control flood waters on the main creek. That is all right, but doesn't go far enough, as we see the picture. Last winter the writer drove all over the valley during and after the big flood, and the trouble as we saw it was that there was just more water coming down the various creeks than the choked-up channels could carry, with the result that the water overflowed the banks in thousands of places and flooded the fields everywhere. The greatest need, it seemed to us, was to clean out the main creek channels from one end to the other. It is our belief that if this is done, the ordinary flood waters will be carried off by the natural channels and little or no damage done.
Arthur E. Powell, "Musings," Central Point American, October 21, 1943, page 1


    When the sewer system in this city was first put in the lower end of the big pipe emptied at the edge of an immense gravel bar beside Bear Creek, and little or no sewage ever reached the creek. But successive floods have carried away that gravel bar, and at present the pipe empties directly into the creek. It has been known by all city officials for several years that SOME DAY this condition would have to cease. And not long ago the state sanitary authorities lost patience and threatened suit to compel the city to build a modern disposal plant.
    So the city council got busy and got a revised estimate of the cost of such a plant and started proceedings to call an election to authorize the issuance of the necessary bonds. According to the estimate the plant should cost in the neighborhood of $70,000, so that was the amount of bonds asked for. There was absolutely no interest shown by the voters of the city, as only 88 votes were cast at the election Saturday--85 for and 3 against. But that was enough to carry the bond issue.
Arthur E. Powell, "Musings," Central Point American, August 8, 1946, page 1


    Once again Jackson County is suffering from overflowing creeks and rivers. Bear Creek was a raging torrent, and much damage was done along its course. The rain was general all over the state, and Southern Oregon was not alone in feeling its effects. The Pacific Highway was closed in several places by flood waters. It was a jim dandy while it lasted.
    To start at the upper end of the valley, Ashland suffered the most damage from the flood. Ashland Creek rose to a point which covered much of Lithia Park, and several business buildings were undermined. The Emigrant Dam above Ashland was filled to the brim and the water spilled over the top.
    The highway bridge near Jackson Hot Springs was partly undermined and settled out of line. None of the county bridges along Bear Creek were damaged, although the bridge on the Kirtland Road was closed temporarily on account of deep water over the road on both ends.
    Probably the worst damage along Bear Creek was to the new bridge east of [Central Point]. There the contractor had just finished putting in the concrete piers and also the posts and stringers to support the concrete forms. All of these posts, caps and stringers were washed away. It looked for a time that they might hold, but when the Lininger bridge above gave way it lodged against the center span in such a way as to destroy the whole structure. Only the first section on the west end of the bridge, which was practically complete, was undamaged.
Arthur E. Powell, "Musings," Central Point American, January 8, 1948, page 1


    Small boys know so very much. They know the big turtles sunning themselves on a log in Bear Creek's shallow waters are NOT the ones from which to make soup. They know that on a sandbar in the same stream, you can find bait for fishing. They know that now is the time the carp, useful as scavengers but not for food, appear in the creek. These things they know, and so much more.
"Sallying Forth," by Sallie Butler, Medford News, July 28, 1950, page 5
221 Feet of Sewer Line Damaged by Flood
    Bear Creek changed its course and washed out 221 feet of the Central Point sewer line on the east side of [the] creek, Arden Pinkham reported today. The line washed out was part of the newly constructed system, finished about three years ago, which connected with the Medford/Camp White system.
    Sewage is now being dumped into Bear Creek until repairs can be made, Mr. Pinkham stated.
Central Point American, January 22, 1953, page 1

Barnett Road, Medford Mail Tribune, December 25, 1955

    He came, he sledged, he left.
    But Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt stuck around just long enough Wednesday to laud Medford's removal of Jackson Street Dam for fish, hear jeers and cheers from onlookers and declare confidence in resolving the fate of Savage Rapids Dam.
    Babbitt's three sledgehammer swings knocked the first wedge out of the 37-year-old Bear Creek dam, which will become the first Northwest dam removed to help threatened salmon this summer.
Mark Freeman, "Bruce Babbitt: Dam Buster," Medford Mail Tribune, July 16, 1998, page 1


Last revised November 17, 2009