How An Entire Downtown Ended Up A National Landmark in Oregon.

We drove through Jacksonville which is about 15 miles west of Southern Oregon RV Park in Central Point, Oregon. The downtown looks really old and I wondered if the buildings were original. We think we might come back here another day. We then drove Hwy 238 about half hour north to Grants Pass. The drive went through a few small towns. Saw a few small grape fields, and some cattle. The trees aren’t thick here but you get that “away from it all” feeling in some places. We headed over to Rogue Creamery farm stand and dairy. We knew we were almost 3 hours before the last tour so we wanted to see if it was worth hanging around for. The store was very small. The lady behind the counter said people can’t walk around and look at the cows because the farmers are working. Understand that. We quickly came to the conclusion that it wasn’t worth waiting for the tour. I grew up next to a large dairy farm and Kevin was around them growing up, too. We ate our picnic lunch and headed back on the old highway that we came on. Kevin said “I got a different view going the other way” on the same road, different direction. HAHA

As we got near Jacksonville, Autio (footnote 1) told us some very interesting things about Jacksonville: *the town was started around the gold rush 1851 *the town built up pretty big and was the largest in the area *when the railroad was being built, the town refuse to give the railroad a free easement *the railroad said fine and built the tracks away from here and over where Medford is now *the town started dying out *since it was slowly dying no one rebuilt or replaced the downtown *now the entire downtown is a national landmark because it is all original! Isn’t that something?! We had no idea! We will come over here after work this week.

When we got home (footnote 2), it was too windy for a fire so we will try another night. I used my new Charcuterie board with Rogue Creamery cheese. Yum!

The next day was better weather. Around 4:00pm Kevin started the fire. Got some hot coals ready and then we cooked packets. The recipe is Packet Taco Burger & Potato. Kevin cooked it all perfectly. We know it is done when I smell it!

I wondered about putting the large packets on plates when done. It would be big and hang over and I didn’t it want to burn my nice picnic tablecloth. So what did I come up with? Cookie sheets! I have the 1/2 size cookie sheet that fit in my oven. They worked perfectly for the packets as plates. The packets were so very tasty! And, it was fun to eat outside.

We wanted to get back to Jacksonville and explore it. A few days later we drove to Jacksonville to Country Quilt. I wanted to pick up a few things and I found this store on Google. Debbie, the owner, has a great store with over 800 quilts! Some made back in the 1800s! She showed several of them to us. Two had red turkey. Beautiful work. The fabrics are very nice quality. She said she had only been in this building for about 9 weeks because she had a fire. Oh no! Mostly smoke damage and she had a “fire sale”. The fabric bolts have been replaced.  She seemed to be doing well with good attitude about it. She and Kevin visited while I looked around. I bought some fabric, paid with cash, and got $5.00 back. Then I saw a huge quilt depicting the area of this town. It is going to be raffled off in Sept – $5.00 a ticket. “Hey Kevin,” I said ever so sweetly, “may I have that $5.00 bill back?” HAHA Yep, got one ticket. As we left, Kevin asked his usually question: where is your favorite place to eat. She immediately said Back Porch BBQ & Grill. We laughed because I had told Kevin the other day that the next time we eat out, I wanted BBQ.

We walked around the downtown. We wanted to see what Autio had told us about this town. Fun to see the architecture: first floors had curves above the windows, second floors had straight lines. After walking around we drove the short distance to the bbq place.

The few spots to park were full so we crossed the street to a church. We were shocked to see these signs posted all over: “This is private property and remains open as a service to our community. Please use with respect. Do no leave trash, debris, or drug paraphernalia behind otherwise public accesss (sic) will be eliminated. Thank you! Relevant Church.” I thought that was really kind of the church.

Back Porch BBQ & Grill looks like maybe it used to be a house. Different rooms for seating and decorated with old cowboy themes. By the front door is hung cowboy boots from floor to ceiling. Kevin had ribs, Cole slaw and fries. I had brisket, potato salad and chili. We both rate it: Every Day! Outstanding. The sauce, which was on a plate with the homemade bread, was sweet and then later had a tiny bite to it of spice. After dinner we went home to sit outside to read and enjoy the rest of the evening.

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1. Autio is an iPhone app that tells all sorts of history and stories about places all over the country. It is narrated and with my iPhone on accessibility, it shows captions of the words being said. So thankful!
2. “Home” is where we park it. Home is our 2022 Alliance Avenue 5th wheel.