Golden is an abandoned mining town located at Coyote Creek in Josephine County,

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

, United States.

History

Wolf Creek was first

settled A settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a pioneer. Settle ...

in the late 1840s when

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. However, most of the settlers left when gold was found in the nearby Salmon River in 1850. The abandoned town was eventually used by

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

miners, who took over the abandoned mines. Several years later, they were driven out as the previous people living here returned from the Salmon River. A

hydraulic mine Hydraulic mining is a form of mining that uses high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment.Paul W. Thrush, ''A Dictionary of Mining, Mineral, and Related Terms'', US Bureau of Mines, 1968, p.560. In the placer mining of ...

was built, and in 1885, a schoolhouse was built about a downstream from Golden. By 1892, over 150 people lived along Coyote Creek. A

Campbellite Campbellite is a mildly pejorative term referring to adherents of certain religious groups that have historic roots in the Restoration Movement, among whose most prominent 19th-century leaders were Thomas and Alexander Campbell. Members of these g ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

and general store were constructed, and in 1896 the Golden

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

established. In 1915, a stamp mill was built. In 1920, the post office closed. The church was rebuilt in 1950. The general store,

carriage house A carriage house, also called a remise or coach house, is an outbuilding which was originally built to house horse-drawn carriages and the related tack. In Great Britain the farm building was called a cart shed. These typically were open ...

, and several homes are still standing today. The Golden Historic District is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. As of 2011, Golden has become an Oregon State Heritage Site. The town was featured in the paranormal investigation show

Ghost Adventures ''Ghost Adventures'' is an American paranormal and reality television series that premiered on October 17, 2008, on the Travel Channel before moving to Discovery+ in 2021. An independent film of the same name originally aired on the Sci-Fi Cha ...

as the town, especially the church are claimed to be haunted by demonic entities. Several locals shared their experiences of being possessed or feeling disoriented. The attraction Oregon Vortex is also featured.

References

{{Josephine County, Oregon Former populated places in Josephine County, Oregon Ghost towns in Oregon National Register of Historic Places in Josephine County, Oregon Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Oregon 1896 establishments in Oregon Populated places established in 1896 Populated places on the National Register of Historic Places

History

See also

References