TOWNS
Jackson County Courthouse is located at 100 South Oakdale Street, Medford OR 97501; phone: 541-774-6147.
Although explorers and trappers passed through southern Oregon between 1825 and 1850, no permanent Euro-American residents settled in the upper Bear Creek Valley until gold was discovered near the present site of Jacksonville in early 1852. At the same time, the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850 encouraged families to seek free, farmable land in the Oregon country. Jackson County was officially designated by the Oregon Territorial legislature on January 12, 1852. [†]
Jacksonville served as the original county seat until 1927 when it was moved to Medford.
† George Kramer, M.S. with Kay Atwood, Historic Preservation Consultant, Siskiyou-Hargadine District, Ashland, Jackson County, Oregon, nomination document, 2001, National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places, Washington, D.C.