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KERBY
JACKSON |
About
Kerby Jackson
Kerby Jackson is an
author, independent gold miner and historian living in Southern
Oregon's Rogue River Valley, an area where Zane Grey and Jack London
often came to receive inspiration to write their own novels. In
addition to being a multi-generation native of the Rogue River
Valley, his father's family have been on the North American
Continent since the 1600's. He is a direct descendent of Sir Thomas
More (lawyer, philosopher, statesman and author of “Utopia”, who was
beheaded for treason against Henry VIII in 1535) and of Martha Allen
Carrier (supposed witch, referred to by Cotton Mather as the “Queen
of Hell”, hanged during the Salem Witch Craze in 1692).
Named for the gold rush era town of Kerbyville, Oregon, he is a
compulsive student of Oregon history, and in particular, that of
Southern Oregon's Gold Rush era. In addition to researching
voraciously, Jackson has literally tromped through and mined gold in
the same creeks, gulches and hills as the first old timers who came
to Southern Oregon in search of gold in the 1850's. He has also
sought out and explored the remnants of their early towns, camps,
cabin-sites, mines and old trails.
Despite this, he actually spent much of his early childhood in
Idaho's Treasure Valley. “We lived on the top of a large bluff
overlooking a bend of the Boise River that was a stopping point on
the Oregon Trail,” Jackson recalls. “I panned my first color out of
Grimes Creek and remember digging for square nails and pieces of
broken plates in what was left of Old Centerville, which was one of
the earliest mining towns in the Boise Basin. I grew up in part on
the homestead of one set of my great grandparents and I was pretty
much allowed to wander as I chose, even from a very young age. I had
a great childhood.” Family vacations consisted of camping, hunting
and visiting the run-down relics of Idaho's early years. During
those years, his love of history and exploring long abandoned
settlements developed.
Jackson's literary influences include William Faulkner, Ernest
Haycox, Zane Grey, Louis L'Amour and Elmer Kelton.
“One of my great grandmothers was a big fan of Louis L'Amour,”
Jackson recalls. “She was the daughter of an Indian Agent and
rancher, later turned professional wolf hunter and trapper, and
spent her childhood in a remote log cabin. Her parents were the
“real deal”, pioneers who had come West in a covered wagon. She
liked L'Amour for his authenticity. My grandmother liked L'Amour
too”.
Despite this, Jackson actually points to Ernest Haycox, another
Oregon native, as his primary influence in the Western genre.
Haycox's novel, “The Wild Bunch”, published in 1943, is his favorite
Western and probably did more to influence his work than any other
Western novel.
“Like L'Amour, Kelton and Faulkner did,” Jackson says, “I tend to
write about the places I've seen and the things I know. While
there's some artistic license involved, they are real places and I
make it a point to utilize as much factual history and real
geography as I can in my fiction. If I say something is there, I
want my readers to be able to go out and find it. In the case of
'Vengeance on Althouse Creek', due to the generosity of a mining
friend, I've had the opportunity to see quite a bit of the Althouse
Country. For example, I have visited the sites of the old camps of
Grass Flat, Frenchtown Bar and Browntown, as well as been on
portions of the old Althouse Trail that runs up the East Fork. Those
trails date back to the early 1850's. I've also visited some of the
old copper and chromite mines up on the West Fork of Althouse and we
went all the way into the headwaters of Sowell Creek which is close
to the California border. While it's not really rough country, was
once well populated by miners and it's still criss-crossed with old
ore roads and mule trails, it's considered a pretty isolated area
and very few people go out there.”
Jackson is a past Chairman of Jefferson Mining District and past
Chief Executive Officer of the Galice Mining District. Currently, he
is a Board Member of Josephine County Historical Society.
As a well known mining rights advocate, he has represented the
mining community on public issues and been interviewed on mining
related topics and mining history by the Grants Pass Daily Courier,
The Oregonian, ABC, NBC and Oregon Public Broadcasting. He wrote a
regular column on local mining history for the weekly newspaper
Apple Rogue Times, as well as contributed articles to the Roseburg
Beacon, 1859 Oregon Magazine and numerous internet sites.
Jackson showed how far he was willing to take his advocacy of mining
rights by actually suing Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber and three
Oregon State Senators for passing state legislation that attacked
mining rights.
He is the author of numerous articles and books, including “Gold
Dust: Stories of Oregon's Mining Years”, “The Golden Trail: More
Stories from Oregon's Mining Years”, “The Troubled Land” and “The
Long Dark Trail”. |
The Golden Trail: More Stories of Oregon's Mining Years
In his follow-up to "Gold
Dust: Stories of Oregon's Mining Years", Oregon mining historian and
prospector, Kerby Jackson, brings you another treasure trove of
stories from Oregon's rich history of gold prospecting, about the
prospectors and their discoveries, as well as about the breathtaking
areas where they made their homes. This time around, Jackson brings
us twelve tales from Oregon's Gold Rush, including the story about
the first gold strike on Canyon Creek in Grant County, about the old
timers who found gold by the pail full at the Victor Mine near Galice, how Iradel Bray discovered a rich ledge of gold on the
Coquille River during the height of the Rogue River War, a tale of
two elderly miners on the hunt for a lost mine in the Cascade
Mountains, details about the discovery of the famous Armstrong
Nugget and others. |