Roxy Ann Peak - History

History

Humans have lived in the Roxy Ann Peak area for the past 8,000 to 10,000 years. The first inhabitants were semi-nomadic, most likely living off edible bulbs and large mammals such as mastodons. Within the last millennium, the region became home to the Latgawa tribe Native Americans, who called the peak Al-wiya. The Latgawa probably used the peak as a lookout, as landmarks as far away as Mount Shasta, approximately 72 miles (120 km) to the south, can be seen clearly from its summit. The mountain was also a good place for gathering acorns and hunting Black-tailed Deer and small birds, animals which are still abundant there today.

The first European Americans to visit the area were likely a group of fur trappers led by Peter Skene Ogden who traveled north through the Rogue Valley on February 14, 1827. The first American settlers arrived in the early 1850s, but the sudden influx caused conflicts with the Latgawa, ultimately leading to the Rogue River Wars of 1855 to 1856. After the war, the remaining Latgawa were forced hundreds of miles north to the Siletz Reservation on the central Oregon coast.

Early residents of the region named the peak Skinner Butte, likely attributed to an Ohioan judge named Alonzo A. Skinner, the Rogue Valley Indian Agent between 1851 and 1853. The current name of the mountain, however, originates from one of its earliest settlers, Roxy Ann Bowen. Roxy Ann, her husband, John, and another couple, Stephan and Mary A. Taylor, claimed almost the entire peak by 1853. The Bowens owned a large parcel of land on the southwestern slopes for nearly 70 years, and in time the mountain came to be known as Roxy Ann Peak.

Residents of Medford have taken pride in the mountain, from declaring the town's first Independence Day by firing 38 cannon blasts—one for each U.S. state—from its summit in 1884, to protecting the area as a city park.