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Medford in 1952
Railroad Put Medford on Map; Pears, Lumber and Tourists Keep Her There in Big Way
STILL WEARS PIONEER SUSPENDERS
Medford, Wealthy and Wise, Takes to Air
By EVA N. HAMILTON
Journal Staff Correspondent
    Medford, born of a railroad company's decision to pass up the mining town of Jacksonville in 1887, poses today as the most "air-minded city between San Francisco and Portland."
    A 1929 bond issue placed the city on the air map with creation of a municipal airport, which continues to expand. The railroad, which gave the city birth, has decreased its service through the Southern Oregon empire. The passenger train, which connected Grants Pass, Medford and Dunsmuir, sounded its whistle for the last run February 26, 1952. But Medford continues to grow.
    The city stands today like a modern Paul Bunyan, gazing no longer into the clouds, hoping for a "sugar daddy" to come and develop its resources. This giant's eyes are focused clearly on the problems at hand. He is outgrowing his britches as the cry of "timber" rings through neighboring hills. But the britches are anchored with sturdy pioneer suspenders. He clings to his "Harvard" accent and the culture, developed in the early 1900s, when the fruit industry drew a highly educated and art-loving people into the Rogue River Valley from the far East and Midwest.
NOT BOOM TOWN
    This is no boom town, although it has experienced a 62 percent increase in population since 1940. The growth has been rapid but healthy, accompanied by expansion of schools, churches and library and a record construction of permanent homes for the 18,500 residents of the city proper.
    New money from the Jackson-Josephine County lumber industry, which brought in $68 million in 1951, has constructed many a "fancy shanty" on the river and on the hill. Fourteen Medford homes have swimming pools.
    The newcomers have been welcomed with enthusiasm, but they have brought little change in the complexion and temperament of this city.
LOTS OF SPENDING
    New industries and new businesses have moved in. Old firms have stayed. The returning visitor will see the same names in lights in the business district. He won't recognize them at first. The firms have undergone faceliftings and expansion to satisfy new blood. Sons are carrying on in Papa's shoes, and they are spending more money than Papa thought was in this world.
    Medford has a transportation problem. The valley needs more water for irrigation. Every lumberman, orchardist and farmer knows that. "But," they say, "you just can't keep people from coming here. It's a place they like to live."
    This city, which once hung its claim to fame on its "Gateway to Crater Lake," sees lumber and agriculture, with a $30 million income ($15 million of it fruit), shoving the tourist business into third place.
TOUCH OF HOLLYWOOD
    Other recent influences affect the character of Medford. Hollywood occasionally blows its breath down Main Street as movie stars and guests come in from Rogue River ranches. Of the half dozen owning such homes the most important stars are Ginger Rogers and Mario Lanza.
    The establishment of Camp White on the old Agate Desert left its mark--the White City industrial area, developed through the energy and vision of Glenn Jackson, former president of the Chamber of Commerce; a grazing project swung by C. C. Hoover, "Mr. Grassman of 1951."
    Started in 1947 as a salvage project, the industrial area is now home to 19 industries, tied to Medford by a spur recently constructed by the Southern Pacific at an approximate cost of $400,000. The industries represent an investment of $3 million at the moment. Two new sawmills, one plywood plant and a metallurgical pilot plant are under construction. Six hundred employees drive out the new Crater Lake Highway to labor there. The number is to be increased by 225 January 1. Last year the area shipped out 153 million feet of lumber and lumber products.
    The old lumber industries have stayed, too, growing all the while. College boys, formerly dependent upon fruit work alone for extra dollars, now go into the hills and into the mills. This lumber pull is so strong that the pear industry each year imports Mexican nationals to help with the harvest. These boys from south of the border also add much new color to a city which for years knew no foreign element. In late summer everyone tries to speak a bit of Spanish.
    So great has become this new interest in Mexico that Medford schools have added a Spanish speaking course to the elementary grades.
SCHOOLS BURST
    The population growth has brought a 60 percent increase in the schools since 1944. To care for the increase Medford has spent $1,185,000 since 1946 on building expansion, and the growth pressure is on again. Sites have been purchased to care for that, too. E. H. Hedrick, superintendent of schools for more than 25 years, checks the community pulse as faithfully as any doctor does his patient's.
    Rogue River Valley residents still "want Johnny to be able to attend an Eastern college if the occasion arises," so a strong academic course is offered him. Latin and the higher mathematics have stayed in the curriculum. The system is progressive, but the progressive continues to be spelled with a small "p."
    A very small portion of Medford's population can be classified as "floating." This good fortune results partially from the new tendency to split irrigated acres into small plots. Workers, buying these plots, are developing homes and supplementing their livelihood with additional production.
    Mrs. Smith goes home from store or office and cans far into the night. She is preserving the fruits and vegetables her husband has grown after work in their own back yard.
"Why do you work so hard?" a customer asks. "We're going to eat well come winter."
Oregon Journal, Portland, October 2, 1952, page 21

Last revised September 4, 2026