Jackson County

Oregon

Jackson County, Oregon

Population

222,243

Indigenous Peoples

Major Waterway

Major Employers

Major Attractions

Recreational Activities

  • Bicycling
  • Birding
  • Camping
  • Caving
  • Fishing
  • Golf
  • Hiking
  • Horseback riding
  • Kayaking, rafting, & jet boating
  • Picnicking
  • Rock climbing
  • Skiing & snowboarding
  • Swimming, water-skiing, windsurfing, & tubing
  • Wildlife viewing

Summary

Poised at the convergence of the Cascade, Siskiyou, and Klamath mountain ranges in one of the most topographically diverse regions in the nation, the picturesque Jackson County is an outdoor enthusiast’s delight and a cultural magpie’s dream-come-true. It’s no wonder two million tourists flock to the area annually and more than 222,000 people choose to call the southwestern Oregon county home.

From majestic alpine peaks to fertile valleys painted with wineries and orchards, Jackson County is named for President Andrew Jackson. It is bordered to the west by Josephine County, the east by Klamath County, the north by Douglas County, and the south by California’s Siskiyou County.

The county seat is Medford, which is also its largest city. Jackson County’s other incorporated cities are Ashland, Butte Falls, Central Point, Eagle Point, Gold Hill, Jacksonville, Phoenix, Rogue River, Shady Cove, and Talent.

With an indigenous presence dating back up to 15,000 years, Jackson County still has residents who belong to the Takelma (a.k.a. Rogue River Indians), Latgawa, Shasta Tribe, Umpqua, and Modoc peoples.

Fur-trapping French-Canadian voyagers first made contact with the area during 1820s expeditions funded by Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). In 1826 and 1827, HBC employee Peter Skene Ogden became one of the first-known Europeans to explore the Rogue Valley. He and fellow HBC explorers traded tools and beads with the Takelma and Shasta peoples in exchange for beaver pelts.

After the Applegate Trail was laid in 1846, Euro-American settlement accelerated. In January 1852, the Oregon Territorial Legislature carved Jackson County out of portions of Lane County, Douglas County, and the now-obsolete Umpqua County.

That same year, the discovery of gold in the valleys of the Rogue River and Illinois River combined with the construction of a wagon road from California to Douglas County spurred a wave of new settlers.

The arrival of the miners ignited conflicts with the indigenous peoples over territory and resources beginning in 1853. Eventually, these periodic battles erupted into the Rogue River Wars of 1855 through 1856, after which most members of the tribes were relocated to the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation and Siletz Reservation.

Thanks to the fertile soils of the Rogue Valley, agriculture supplanted gold mining as the county’s dominant economic force beginning in the 1860s. By the 1880s, fruit orchards—including apples and the pears the region would become famous for—thrived in the area due to intensified cultivation and irrigation infrastructure, earning Oregon a reputation as a fruit basket.

The completion of the Oregon and California Railroad that decade and 1917 construction of the Pacific Highway through Medford led to its becoming the Rogue Valley’s produce processing and shipping center. Consequently, Medford replaced Jacksonville as the county seat in 1927. Medford’s economic flourishing continued thanks to later infrastructure additions such as the Interstate 5 (I-5) under the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1961.

Lumber also played a role in the developing economy, especially during the population boom following World War II, and remained a pivotal sector until the 1970s.

Taking advantage of the region’s Mediterranean climate, diverse terrain, protective mountain barriers, and coastal warming influences, viticulturists began cultivating grape varieties in the Rogue Valley in the 1980s, leading to the 1991 establishment of the Rogue Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA) spanning more than one million acres of Jackson and Josephine Counties. Today, the AVA’s internationally recognized wine industry comprises approximately 180 vineyards across 4,000 acres (3,314 of which are in Jackson County) featuring more than fifty grape varieties with an annual crop of 10,000 tons of grapes used in the production of wine. The area’s macroclimates are particularly well-suited to the growing of varietals such as Viognier, Tempranillo, and Syrah.

Hemp production is another staple of the economy, seeing a spike after Oregon industrialized the crop in 2009 and again later when the 2018 federal Farm Bill encouraged the commercial production of hemp.

There is a robust and growing health care industry in Jackson County, including extensive alternative health care offerings. Its three outstanding hospitals—Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center, Providence Medford Medical Center, and Asante Ashland Community Hospital—make it an especially desirable destination for retirees.

Located at the junction of the Klamath Knot, the county enjoys a rich biodiversity thanks to its four intersecting physiographic provinces of the Klamath Mountains, Western Cascades, Recent High Cascades, and Western Interior Valley.

The same environmental features that make the county a phenomenal site for agriculture and specifically wine production also make it a recreational tourist’s paradise, with year-round activities ranging from skiing and snowboarding Mt. Ashland to hiking and bicycling to fishing and whitewater-rafting the world-class rapids at the Rogue River.

Three national forests—Klamath, Rogue River-Siskiyou, and Umpqua—run through Jackson County. Established in 2000 and later expanded in 2017, the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument preserves 114,000 acres of pristine land, including wildlife corridors, at the conjunction of the Cascade and Siskiyou ecoregions.

As if the natural beauty and award-winning viticulture weren’t enough of a draw for tourists, the region’s world-class performing, visual, and culinary arts rival those of booming metropolises. From the internationally renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) to the panoramic music concerts at Britt Festivals to the comedy headliners at the Craterian Theater, Jackson County will keep your cultural palate perpetually sated.

Ashland has earned accolades as a hub for independent filmmaking, including ranking #10 on MovieMaker Magazine’s list of Top 10 Small Towns for Filmmakers in 2026.

It also boasts the largest art museum between San Francisco and Eugene, the Schneider Museum of Art on the Southern Oregon University campus.

With many of the county’s standout cultural and recreational attractions located in this university town, it’s not surprising Ashland made Smithsonian Magazine’s 2012 honor roll of best 20 small towns in America, ranked #5 on Outside Magazine’s list of the 10 Best Bike Towns in America in 2024, and garnered repeated spots on Forbes’s 25 Best Places to Enjoy Your Retirement lists in 2022, 2024, and 2025.

In 2025, Medford was one of three cities to win the Where to Go: Top Small Towns category in the Sunset Travel Awards, earning it the moniker of a hidden hamlet in Sunset Magazine.

From five-star fine dining to down-home comfort food to farm-fresh fare in every imaginable cuisine, Jackson County’s restaurant scene attracts foodies from across the country.

Perhaps you are a retiree ready to settle into your fantasy home for your golden years, a viticulturist dreaming about cultivating your own vineyard and winery, or a manufacturer looking for an alluring commercial property. Whatever your property valuation needs, Phoenix Appraisal Network offers a wide range of expert services to fulfill your needs. Contact us today to see how we can help you.

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