Blue River is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Lane County, Oregon Lane County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 382,971, making it the fourth-most populous county in Oregon. The county seat is Eugene. It is named in honor of Joseph Lane, Ore ...

, United States. It is located on

Oregon Route 126 Oregon OR 126 (OR 126) is a state highway that connects coastal, western, and central parts of the U.S. state of Oregon. A short freeway section of OR 126 in Eugene and Springfield is concurrent with Interstate 105 (I-105). Rout ...

along the McKenzie River, between the communities of Finn Rock and

Rainbow A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...

. It is in the

Willamette National Forest The Willamette National Forest is a National Forest located in the central portion of the Cascade Range of the U.S. state of Oregon. It comprises . Over 380,000 acres (694 mi2, 1,540 km2) are designated wilderness which include seve ...

, where the Blue River empties into the McKenzie. The community was named after the Blue River, which was named for the striking blue color that apparently comes from its rocky bed. Five miles northeast of the community, a dam on the Blue River forms the

Blue River Reservoir Blue River Reservoir is an artificial impoundment, about long, of the Blue River in Lane County in the U.S. state of Oregon. The reservoir is about north of Oregon Route 126 in the Willamette National Forest about east of Eugene. In 1968 th ...

History

The area was first settled in the late 19th century by the Sparks family.

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

was discovered in the Blue River area in 1863, but by 1912, most gold mining activity had ended. The ore was low grade and the local stamp mills have not operated in many years. Records show, however, that the Lucky Boy Mine had extracted more than $1 million from the Blue River Mining District during the brief gold rush. Samuel Sparks and his sons laid out the town of Blue River in 1900 as part of they had acquired. Blue River post office was established in 1886. The community's volunteer Frances O'Brien Memorial Library was founded in 1928. The library has no running water, does not set due dates on loans, and was originally left unlocked 24 hours a day. The structures in Blue River were destroyed by the

Holiday Farm Fire The Holiday Farm Fire occurred in the U.S. state of Oregon in 2020. It ranks among the largest wildfires in Oregon history, burning a total of centered on the McKenzie River valley in Lane County. Beginning near the Holiday Farm RV Resort in ...

on September 8, 2020. The Frances O’Brien Memorial Library will temporarily operate out of the Upper McKenzie Community Center in Rainbow, Oregon.

Climate

This region experiences warm (but not hot) and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above . According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, Blue River has a

warm-summer Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

, abbreviated "Csb" on climate maps.

References

External links

* {{authority control 1886 establishments in Oregon Unincorporated communities in Lane County, Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon Populated places established in 1886 Willamette National Forest