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Jackson County turns Fort Lane site over to Oregon parks
Friday, April 25, 2008 | No comments posted.
MEDFORD (AP) — The remnants of a fort built more than 150 years ago that has been picked over by vandals and looters is about to become a state park.
Fort Lane was built in 1853 after a treaty was signed establishing the Table Rock Indian Reservation.
It housed the U.S. Army’s First Dragoons based in Benicia, Calif., and represented the Rogue Valley’s only white civil authority at the time.
The fort was established shortly after a clash between American Indians and European settlers and was named after Oregon’s first territorial governor, Joseph Lane, who also led military campaigns against the Indians in 1851 and 1853.
Shaped like a giant horseshoe, the original fort had more than a dozen buildings, including infantry quarters, officer quarters, kitchens, a small medical building, guard house, blacksmith shop and store.
Mark Tveskov, a Southern Oregon University professor, has conducted an excavation of a trash dump at the site that yielded bottles, dishes, buttons, remnants of shoes, horse tack and a fragment of a domino, along with an 1854 U.S. silver quarter that had been shaped into a spur.
But no remnants of the buildings remain above ground.
The fort is still on maps, but the exact location is not well known. Officials have tried to protect it against persistent vandalism and looting.
Jackson County commissioners voted Wednesday to transfer it to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.
“People should realize why we’re transferring the property over to state parks. They have more cash than we do,” said Commissioner Dave Gilmour.
State parks officials will invest $135,000 to repair fencing, build a bathroom and a parking area, and improve access to the former fort and to trails.
The parks department will install interpretive signs and other features. But there are no plans to rebuild the structures.
The total area for the day-use park is 19.26 acres, except for a tract 10 feet by 10 feet owned by the Oregon Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
The DAR has a 10-foot-tall stone monument with a plaque that had been stolen and remained missing for many years. County surveyor Roger Roberts said the bronze plaque was in east Medford, but he’s not sure how it will be displayed at the park.
Fort Lane was built in 1853 after a treaty was signed establishing the Table Rock Indian Reservation.
It housed the U.S. Army’s First Dragoons based in Benicia, Calif., and represented the Rogue Valley’s only white civil authority at the time.
The fort was established shortly after a clash between American Indians and European settlers and was named after Oregon’s first territorial governor, Joseph Lane, who also led military campaigns against the Indians in 1851 and 1853.
Shaped like a giant horseshoe, the original fort had more than a dozen buildings, including infantry quarters, officer quarters, kitchens, a small medical building, guard house, blacksmith shop and store.
Mark Tveskov, a Southern Oregon University professor, has conducted an excavation of a trash dump at the site that yielded bottles, dishes, buttons, remnants of shoes, horse tack and a fragment of a domino, along with an 1854 U.S. silver quarter that had been shaped into a spur.
But no remnants of the buildings remain above ground.
The fort is still on maps, but the exact location is not well known. Officials have tried to protect it against persistent vandalism and looting.
Jackson County commissioners voted Wednesday to transfer it to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.
“People should realize why we’re transferring the property over to state parks. They have more cash than we do,” said Commissioner Dave Gilmour.
State parks officials will invest $135,000 to repair fencing, build a bathroom and a parking area, and improve access to the former fort and to trails.
The parks department will install interpretive signs and other features. But there are no plans to rebuild the structures.
The total area for the day-use park is 19.26 acres, except for a tract 10 feet by 10 feet owned by the Oregon Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
The DAR has a 10-foot-tall stone monument with a plaque that had been stolen and remained missing for many years. County surveyor Roger Roberts said the bronze plaque was in east Medford, but he’s not sure how it will be displayed at the park.
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