View of Rogue Valley from Wagner Butte

Place Names Oregon and N. California by George Wright



                                    IMMIGRANT ROAD OVER THE GREENSPRINGS
                                                 July 3, 1952  by George F. Wright
After the Immigrant Road crossed Jenny Creek going westward toward Ashland, Oregon it went by the place now known as the Zinn Ranch, and on by the Twenty-Mile Spring, and crossed Keene Creek about where the present highway is now located, and on over the summit.

Sailor Bailey told me that his father, George H. Bailey, at the age of sixteen, came over this old road with an immigrant train from Missouri in 1850. And the place now known as the Zinn Ranch was at that time named Round Valley when the immigrant train stayed there for a few days to rest and re-arrange their ox teams after some of their oxen were stolen by the Indians while they were coming through the Klamath Basin.

                                                   THE CHIPMUNK TUNNEL
                                        November 17, 1952  by George F. Wright
My memory of the exact location of the Chipmunk Tunnel is rather vague, for I was quite young around 1902, when a man by the name of Swift from, I believe, San Francisco, California, was prospecting for gold along Camp Creek.
Swift dug a tunnel in a hillside near the left fork of Camp Creek.
I was at the tunnel around forty years ago with my father looking for cattle, but I have forgotten the exact spot.
C. F. Moore told me several years ago that it was on a hillside in the brush near the right hand gulch branching off the left fork of Camp Creek, or at least that is the way I remember the way Moore told me.
I remember the old timers telling me, and hearing people talk about, Swift finding gold colors there in his tunnel and along the left fork of Camp Creek.
Probably there is not anyone around any more who remembers where it is, and very few at this time ever heard of it.
How it got the name, Chipmunk Tunnel, I don't remember.

                                                          RUFLEY'S HOLLOW
                                         November 18, 1952 by George F. Wright
Rufley's Hollow is a little gulch about one-half mile or more long, that branches off the right hand fork of Camp Creek, to the west of Rufley's Camp.
A man by the name of Rufley camped and made pickets there in the early 1890's. The campsite is called Rufley's Camp and the little gulch is called Rufley's Hollow. During the early 1920's the cattlemen built a log corral at the campsite and traces of it can still be seen.

                                                                   COLD SPRING
                                                  December 6, 1952 by George F. Wright
Between 1866 and 1875, William A. Wright had a camp at Cold Spring. He had a fireplace and a lean-to when he was riding and looking after cattle for Charles F. Hammond on the Camp Creek Ranch now known as the DeSoza Ranch.
Forty years ago or more, pieces of the tumbled down lean-to was still there. The pile of rocks which was once his fireplace can still be seen a few feet from Cold Spring, where my homestead is now located.
Wright also at one time camped some little distance northwest of Cold Spring among some little pine trees. This was an open camp with his bed in between some trees a few feet from his campfire. One morning when he got out of bed to start a fire and prepare breakfast, he found grizzly bear tracks in the ashes of the fire he had the evening before about thirty feet from his bed.

                                                               GRIEVE'S TRAIL
                                                 December 7, 1952 by George F. Wright
There is an old trail which is getting pretty dim, between the mouth of Jenny Creek and the old Grieve upper ranch. This has been called Grieve's Trail since the Grieve Brothers located their homestead along Jenny Creek in early days, and built them into cattle ranches.
What was known as the Grieve lower ranch was located at the mouth of Jenny Creek, and a much larger ranch was located northward up Jenny Creek about seven miles and was known as the Grieve Upper Ranch.
The Grieve brothers while riding horseback from one ranch to the other had a trail which they kept the brush trimmed out and the rocks out. This was known as Grieve's Trail.
From their lower ranch the trail followed along Jenny Creek for about a mile and turned up over a steep hill and over into the head of Dutch Creek, and on northward and by Cold Spring and straight over the ridge to Apple Jack and their upper ranch.
They also had a trail that branched off the main trail and followed up Jenny Creek Canyon for some distance and out over the rim at the Bear Cave and to the main trail at Cold Spring.
In riding these trails, they were riding where their cattle ranged. This gave them a chance to see their cattle more than if they rode on the east side of Jenny Creek.
In those early days hundreds of cattle drank water from Cold Spring, and the surrounding area was a favorite place for cattle to graze.
Many things have changed since the Grieve brothers were in the cattle business along Jenny Creek. In recent years the old Grieve's Trail has slowly faded away until now only part of it can be seen.