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Rare large format cadastral map of Jackson County, Oregon, compiled from official sources by the Jackson Abstract Company.
The map is reduced from an even larger map of Jackson County, published in the same year.
This extraordinary map identifies the towns, townships and a number of the existing land owners within the county. A number of the areas are still prominently labeled as unsurveyed, especially in the area of Buncom, Union Town and Ruch. Among the more notable appearances on the map are Medford, Ashland, and parts of Siskiyou National Forest and Klamath National Forest. The map is certified by the County Judge, 2 Commissioners and the County Clerk, and includes a note on recent Acts of Congress respecting the National Forests within Jackson County.
Jackson County is situated on the Oregon-California Border, bounded by Josephine County and Douglas County to the west and Klamath County to the East. The Oregon Territorial Legislature created Jackson County on January 12, 1852, from the southwestern portion of Lane County and the unorganized area south of Douglas and Umpqua Counties. It included lands which now lie in Coos, Curry, Josephine, Klamath and Lake Counties. Gold discoveries in the Rogue and Illinois River valleys near Jacksonville in 1852 and the completion of a wagon road connecting the county with California to the south and Douglas County to the north led to the first influx of American settlers.
Conflict between the miners and Native Americans led to war in 1853, which continued until the final defeat of the last band under chiefs John and George by a combined force of regular army and civilians on May 29, 1856, at Big Bend on the Illinois River. The Native Americans in the region were relocated to the Siletz Reservation.
Jacksonville was designated as the first county seat in 1853. By the 1880s, Medford had emerged as the major town in the region, in large part because of its proximity to the California and Oregon Railroad, which bypassed Jacksonville. In 1927, Medford was finally selected as the county seat.
The Schmidt Lithography Company was based in San Francisco. Max Schmidt, a German immigrant, founded his first printing business in 1873, and he was one of the first printers to use lithography on the West Coast. His plant burned twice, in 1884 and 1886, but by the 1890s he ran a factory in San Francisco, as well as branches in Portland and Seattle.
During the 1906 earthquake and fire the company’s premises were destroyed again. Schmidt quickly acquired a nearby paper factory and production continued practically uninterrupted. Within two years of the fire, Schmidt had rebuilt on the site of his former factory at the corner of Second and Bryant Streets.
Schmidt’s company was best known for its printed labels, but they also produced other items like separately-issued prints. The company was once the largest printing company on the West Coast and today they are remembered for the clock tower that still stands at Second and Bryant Streets.
![Map of Oregon Territory. By Samuel Parker. 1838. [with:] Journal of an Exploring Tour Beyond the Rocky Mountains, under the direction of the A. B. C. F. M. 1840.](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/97939.jpg)