Jawbone Flats is a

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

Marion County, Oregon Marion County is one of the Oregon counties, 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. The population was 345,920 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of counties in Oregon, 5th most populous county in Oregon. The ...

, United States. It is located along

Opal Creek The Opal Creek Wilderness is a National Wilderness Preservation System, wilderness area located in the Willamette National Forest in the U.S. state of Oregon, on the border of the Mount Hood National Forest. It has the largest uncut watershed ...

, approximately from

Salem Salem may refer to: Places Canada * Salem, Ontario, various places Germany * Salem, Baden-Württemberg, a municipality in the Bodensee district ** Salem Abbey (Reichskloster Salem), a monastery * Salem, Schleswig-Holstein Israel * Salem (B ...

, the state capitol, and is accessible via the Opal Pool Loop trail. Established in 1931, Jawbone Flats was a mining camp founded after miners discovered gold in the region in 1859.

History

Jawbone Flats was established in 1931 by James Hewitt of the Amalgamated Mining Company, after miners had struck

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

in the region in 1859. The company processed various metals found in the region, including

lead Lead () is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a Heavy metal (elements), heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale, soft and Ductility, malleabl ...

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

, and

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

. Some of the roads built in the area, including the Gold Creek Bridge, were constructed under President Roosevelt's

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

in 1939. The town population began to dwindle in the 1950s after snow damaged the buildings, and the mining operations proved unprofitable. In 1992, after all mining operations had ceased in the region, the Shiny Rock Mining Company gifted of oldgrowth forest, including Jawbone Flats, to the Friends of Opal Creek, a non-profit historical society. Contemporarily Jawbone Flats is accessible to the public, and hosts educational field trips for schools, as well as other events. Jawbone Flats was largely destroyed by the

Beachie Creek Fire The Santiam Fire was a very large wildfire that burned in Marion, Jefferson, Linn, and Clackamas counties, in northwest Oregon, United States. Having ignited in August 2020, the 402,274-acre (162,795 ha) fire ravaged multiple communi ...

in 2020.

References

{{authority control Company towns in Oregon Ghost towns in Oregon Former populated places in Marion County, Oregon 1931 establishments in Oregon

History

See also

References