State of Oregon - Douglas County

Douglas County. Bounded north by Lane, east by Wasco, south by Jackson, Josephine and Coos, and west by Coos and the Pacific Ocean. Area, 5,000 square miles. Assessed valuation of property for 1874, $2,750,000. County seat, Roseburg. Principal towns, Canonville, Drain Station, Gardiner, Galesville, Myrtle Creek, Oakland, Scottsburg, and Wilbur. This county has the largest area of any west of the Cascade Mountains, and possesses great diversity of soil, scenery, and resources. The distinguishing feature is the extensive and fertile valley of the Umpqua, where are the principal settlements. This is a noble valley, not altogether a plain, but a succession of hills and dales, of exceeding fertility, comprising in the aggregate over a million acres of arable land, watered by numerous bubbling springs and purling rivulets. The Calapooia Mountains separate it from the Willamette Valley on the north; the Cascade Range is the eastern limit, and lying between Douglas County and the Great Basin of the "Lake country," and the Rogue River Mountains on the southern border divide it from the valley of that name. The climate is as pleasant as could be desired, rains and slight snows in winter, with the summer-heat tempered by a gentle breeze always sweeping up the valley of the Umpqua from the ocean, assuring vigorous health and a temperature of perfect loveliness. This attractive section is now brought into easy communication with the world by the Oregon and California Railroad, which has its southern terminus at Roseburg, 200 miles south of Portland, and here it connects with the stages to the California and Oregon Railroad at Redding, 275 miles distant. The Umpqua River, with numerous branches affording unlimited water-power, runs through the county to the ocean. At its mouth is a good harbor, and the river is navigable for light draft steamers a distance of thirty miles to the thriving towns of Scottsburg and Gardiner. Roads from various points on the railroad lead to these towns on the river, through which much of the business of the county is transacted, and also a good road leads from Roseburg to Coos Bay, opening an easy route to San Francisco. The streams abound in fish, the most valuable commercially, being the noble salmon, which are caught and prepared for export in large quantities. Game of every species is found throughout the county, making it the paradise of the sportsman. Among its native forest trees is the beautiful myrtle, a most lovely ornament to gardens and pleasure grounds, with a wood capable of a polish like mahogany. Mines of gold, coal, and salt are profitably worked, and quarries of brown sandstone furnish an elegant material for building. Several academies and high schools are established and well maintained at different places, and the numerous churches give proof of the advanced and refined state of society of this isolated and frontier region.
Officers: Thomas Smith, County Judge; E. Stephens, Clerk, Recorder, and Auditor; C. W. Fitch, District Attorney; E. Livingston, Sheriff and Tax Collector; J. B. Noble, Treasurer; A. A. Matthews, Assessor; William Shiel, Surveyor; S. Palmer, Coroner; H. P. Watkins, Superintendent of Public Schools.

Pacific Coast Business Directory | Oregon Territory Index

Oregon Directory and Gazetteer

Source: Pacific Coast Business Directory for 1876-78, Compiled by Henry G. Langley, San Francisco, 1875.