Sterlingville, Oregon

Last updated
Sterlingville, Oregon
Unincorporated community
USA Oregon location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Sterlingville
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Sterlingville
Coordinates: 42°13′29″N122°56′34″W / 42.22472°N 122.94278°W / 42.22472; -122.94278 Coordinates: 42°13′29″N122°56′34″W / 42.22472°N 122.94278°W / 42.22472; -122.94278
Country United States
State Oregon
County Jackson
Elevation
2,726 ft (831 m)
Time zone UTC-8 (Pacific (PST))
 • Summer (DST) UTC-7 (PDT)
GNIS feature ID1165994 [1]
Coordinates and elevation from Geographic Names Information System [1]

Sterlingville was a boomtown along Sterling Creek in Jackson County, Oregon, United States, once home to the largest hydraulic mine in Oregon. It has since been abandoned and destroyed.

Contents

History

Sterlingville was founded in 1854 when two miners named James Sterling and Aaron Davis discovered gold in nearby Sterling Creek. Word leaked out that gold had been found, and within two years Sterlingville was home to over 800 people. Buildings in the town included general stores, a warehouse, boarding houses, a bakery, a casino, a dance hall, saloons, a blacksmith shop, a barber shop, and many houses. [2] At its peak Sterlingville had a population of over 1,500. [3] The Sterlingville School District was created in 1869. In 1877, the newly founded Sterling Mine Company built the Sterling Ditch, diverting water 23 miles (37 km) from Little Applegate River for hydraulic mining of gold and chromite. [2] [4] Sterling Mine quickly became the largest hydraulic mine in Oregon, and possibly the entire western United States. [4] As the source of Sterling Ditch was 120 feet (37 m) above the mine, it used gravity to propel water through three 5-inch (13 cm) nozzles. Captain A. P. Ankeny, owner of the Sterling Mine Company, collected over $64,000 from gold. [4] The Sterlingville post office was built in 1879, but as the gold ran out, the population of the town declined. In 1883, the post office closed, by 1910, hydraulic mining had stopped, and in 1937, the school district closed down. [2]

During the Great Depression, Sterlingville saw a revival of hydraulic mining. The mines operated from 1933 to 1957. [2] [4] The mines devastated the surrounding landscape, washing away nearly all the soil, and moving piles of rocks downstream. [3] [4] After the mines closed, the town was abandoned and destroyed. [2] [3] [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

Sumpter, Oregon City in Oregon, United States

Sumpter is a city in Baker County, Oregon, United States. The population was 204 at the 2010 census. Sumpter is named after Fort Sumter by its founders. The name was inspired by a rock as smooth and round as a cannonball, which reminded a local resident of the American Civil War and Fort Sumter.

Granite, Oregon City in Oregon, United States

Granite is a city in Grant County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. The city had a population of 38 in 2010, up from 24 in 2000. In 2010, it was the fourth-smallest incorporated city by population in Oregon. The smaller cities were Shaniko, Lonerock (21), and nearby Greenhorn (0).

Leesburg, Idaho United States historic place

Leesburg is an unincorporated community in Lemhi County, Idaho, United States. It lies at 45°13′26″N114°6′50″W, along Napias Creek in the Salmon National Forest, west of Salmon. Its altitude is 6,653 feet (2,028 m). The community possessed a post office as late as 1942, but it has since closed. Little remains of the original community. The entire site has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1975.

Blue Tent, California Mining community in California, United States

Blue Tent is a historic 19th century gold mining community located about six miles northeast of Nevada City, California.

Red Dog, California Former settlement in California, United States

Red Dog was a California gold rush mining town located in the Gold Country in south-central Nevada County, California, United States, 6 mi (9.7 km) northeast of Chicago Park. Red Dog Hill, a mine and campsite, was founded by three men all under the age of 22, and was named by their youngest, a 15-year-old prospector. As mining operations grew, the campsite became a settlement, and then a town with a population of 2,000 residents, before it was eventually abandoned. Still considered important today, Red Dog Townsite is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Red Dog has been noted for its unusual place name.

Buncom, Oregon Unincorporated community in Oregon, United States

Buncom is an abandoned mining town at the confluence of the Little Applegate River and Sterling Creek in Jackson County, Oregon, United States. It is approximately 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Medford, at an elevation of 1,683 feet (513.0 m) above sea level. The site is promoted by the local historical society as a ghost town.

Golden, Oregon Ghost town in Oregon, United States

Golden is an abandoned mining town located at Coyote Creek in Josephine County, Oregon, United States.

Little Applegate River river in the United States of America

The Little Applegate River is a 21-mile-long (34 km) tributary of the Applegate River located in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is part of the Rogue River watershed, draining approximately 113 square miles (293 km2) of Jackson County. Rising in the Siskiyou Mountains, the river flows generally northwest to meet the Applegate about 3 miles (4.8 km) northwest of Buncom and 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Ruch.

Placer, Oregon Unincorporated community in Oregon, United States

Placer is an unincorporated community in Josephine County, Oregon, United States, on Grave Creek a few miles east of Interstate 5. Established during the local gold mining boom, it is considered a ghost town.

Tolo, Oregon Unincorporated community in Oregon, United States

Tolo is an unincorporated community in Jackson County, Oregon, United States, located north of Interstate 5, between Central Point and Gold Hill, south of Sams Valley. Originally named Willow Springs, the town was envisioned to be one of the biggest cities of Southern Oregon. Tolo was platted in 1888, but was virtually abandoned by the year 1918. In 1986, the Jackson County Commission returned the plat to public ownership.

Wilkesboro, Oregon Unincorporated community in Oregon, United States

Wilkesboro is an unincorporated community in Washington County, Oregon, United States. It is located on Oregon Route 6, one mile east of Banks.

Lime, Oregon Unincorporated community in Oregon, United States

Lime is an unincorporated community and ghost town in Baker County, Oregon, United States, 5 miles (8 km) north of Huntington on U.S. Route 30/Interstate 84. It is near the confluence of Marble Creek and the Burnt River on the Union Pacific Railroad. The Oregon Trail passes through Lime.

Bourne, Oregon Former unincorporated community in Oregon, United States

Bourne is a ghost town in Baker County, Oregon, United States about 7 miles (11 km) north of Sumpter in the Blue Mountains. It lies on Cracker Creek and is within the Wallowa–Whitman National Forest. Platted in 1902, the former gold mining boomtown is considered a ghost town today.

Riverton, Oregon Unincorporated community in Oregon, United States

Riverton is an unincorporated community in Coos County, Oregon, United States, on Oregon Route 42S, about 12 miles (19 km) up the Coquille River from Bandon. Route 42S is the former alignment of U.S. Route 101.

Galena is an unincorporated community in Grant County, Oregon, United States, about 20 miles (32 km) from Austin Junction in the Blue Mountains. It is on the Middle Fork John Day River in the Malheur national forest. The former gold mining camp is considered a ghost town.

Susanville is an unincorporated community in Grant County, Oregon, United States, in the Blue Mountains about two miles up Elk Creek from Galena. The place was started as a gold mining camp in 1862 or 1864 and is now considered a ghost town.

Nonpareil is an unincorporated historic community in Douglas County, Oregon, United States. It is about 8 miles (13 km) east of Sutherlin, near Calapooya Creek. The population of the area was about 202 in 2000. Nonpareil was the birthplace of novelist H. L. Davis.

Hamlet is an unincorporated community in Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. It is located approximately six miles southeast of Necanicum, in the Northern Oregon Coast Range near the confluence of the North Fork Nehalem River and the Little North Fork Nehalem River. It is surrounded by units of the Clatsop State Forest.

Holland is an unincorporated community in Josephine County, Oregon, United States. It is about eight miles southeast of Cave Junction, in the Illinois Valley south of Oregon Route 46.

Greenback, Oregon Unincorporated community in Oregon, United States

Greenback is a ghost town and former mining town in Josephine County, Oregon.

References

  1. 1 2 "Sterlingville Post Office (historical)". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. August 1, 1994. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Friedman, Ralph (1990). In Search of Western Oregon. Caxton Press. pp. 249–250. ISBN   978-0-87004-332-1 . Retrieved July 28, 2009.
  3. 1 2 3 Potter, Miles (1976). Oregon's Golden Years. Caxton Press. p. 24. ISBN   978-0-87004-254-6 . Retrieved July 28, 2009.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fowler, Connie; Roberts, J. B. (2004). Buncom, crossroads station (2 ed.). iUniverse. ISBN   978-0-595-31503-1 . Retrieved July 28, 2009.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.