Grants Pass, Oregon history

In 1843 the Applegate brothers, Jesse and Lindsay, were part of a band of settlers traveling the Oregon Trail from Missouri.

The Applegate wagon train of emigrants in 1846 made the first wagon tracks through the beautiful Rogue River Valley.

The emigrants of that time had but one destination in mind, the Willamette Valley, and Josephine County was named for Josephine Rollins Ort, who came to Illinois Valley with her father in 1851.

In 1852, sailors who had deserted their ship near Crescent City started for the newly discovered gold fields at Jacksonville, but found rich deposits at a location in the Illinois Valley just 25 miles south of the present Grants Pass.

Secession and the politics of the Civil War, 1860–65The coming of the warThe political course of the warMoves toward emancipationSectional dissatisfaction

The name was selected to honor General United States Grant's success at Vicksburg the same year the post office was established in 1865.

When the tracks were extended into the modest settlement of Grants Pass around 1880, things starting hopping.

The first downtown building was constructed in 1883.

The county’s first courthouse went up in Grants Pass in 1886.

The city of Grants Pass was incorporated in 1887.

Grover Cleveland’s first termThe surplus and the tariffThe public domainThe Interstate Commerce ActThe election of 1888

The Benjamin Harrison administrationThe Sherman Antitrust ActThe silver issueThe McKinley tariffThe agrarian revoltThe PopulistsThe election of 1892

Now known as The Daily Courier. It lasted only a few months, but the Grants Pass Courier began three weeks later In 1897.

In 1922, the Grants Pass Cavemen booster club was created, where members dressed in furs and wielded clubs at events.

The Chamber of Commerce was established in 1924.

Built in 1931 Grants Pass is currently home to Caveman Bridge, built by Conde McCullough in the first half of the 20th century.

World War IIThe road to warThe United States at warWar productionFinancing the warSocial consequences of the warThe 1944 electionThe new United States role in world affairs

The peak Cold War years, 1945–60The Truman Doctrine and containmentPostwar domestic reorganizationThe Red ScareThe Korean WarPeace, growth, and prosperityEisenhower’s second termDomestic issuesWorld affairsAn assessment of the postwar era

Rogue Community College was established in November 1970. http://www.roguecc.edu/

The 2010 midterm elections

The Iran nuclear deal, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013, and the Ukraine crisis

The child migrant border surge, air strikes on ISIL (ISIS), and the 2014 midterm elections