Dardanelles is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Jackson County,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, United States. It lies opposite the city of Gold Hill on the south side of the Rogue River.

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels thro ...

and

Oregon Route 99 Oregon Route 99 is a state highway that runs between the southern border of Oregon, and the city of Junction City. Oregon Route 99 was formed from parts of the former U.S. Route 99; it shares much of its route with I-5, but much of it is al ...

pass by Gold Hill and Dardanelles. William G. T'Vault, who founded the community in the 1850s, chose the name apparently because the river here runs through a narrow stretch between hills and may have reminded him of the

Dardanelles The Dardanelles ( ; ; ), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli (after the Gallipoli peninsula) and in classical antiquity as the Hellespont ( ; ), is a narrow, natural strait and internationally significant waterway in northwestern Turkey th ...

between Asia and Europe. T'Vault was the first

postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...

of a post office established here in 1852 and which operated intermittently until 1878. Although a place of importance in early Oregon, little of the community remains. Author Ralph Friedman says in ''In Search of Western Oregon'', "Today most people in Gold Hill know of Dardanelles only because a ocalservice station bears that name."

References

Unincorporated communities in Jackson County, Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon {{JacksonCountyOR-geo-stub