Takilma 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 ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in

Josephine County, Oregon Josephine County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 88,090. The county seat is Grants Pass. The county is named after Virginia Josephine Rollins (1834–1912), a settler who was t ...

, United States, south of Cave Junction. It is located on the East Fork

Illinois River The Illinois River () is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River at approximately in length. Located in the U.S. state of Illinois, the river has a drainage basin of . The Illinois River begins with the confluence of the Des Plaines ...

, about a mile southeast of the ghost town of Waldo. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 378. Takilma is considered an alternative community and an informal

artist colony Art colonies are organic congregations of artists in towns, villages and rural areas, who are often drawn to areas of natural beauty, the prior existence of other artists, Art school, art schools there, or a lower cost of living. They are typica ...

, which is home to several artists, such as Kendall Art Glass. It may be best known as the site of a

tree house A tree house, tree fort or treeshed, is a platform or building constructed around, next to or among the trunk or branches of one or more mature trees while above ground level. Tree houses can be used for recreation, work space, habitation, a ha ...

resort operated by Out'n'About.

Demographics

History

According to ''

Oregon Geographic Names ''Oregon Geographic Names'' is a compilation of the origin and meaning of place names in the U.S. state of Oregon, published by the Oregon Historical Society. The book was originally published in 1928. It was compiled and edited by Lewis A. McArt ...

'', Takilma was originally called "Taklamah", probably by Col. T. W. Draper of the Waldo Copper Company for an Indian chief. The name was changed to "Takilma" in 1902, after the

Takelma The Takelma (also Dagelma) are a Native American people who originally lived in the Rogue Valley of interior southwestern Oregon. Most of their villages were sited along the Rogue River. The name ''Takelma'' means "(Those) Along the River". H ...

tribe, who lived on the Rogue River. The Takilma post office operated from 1902 until 1967. After that time the building became a general store, but was burned to the ground in 1988 after a man was murdered by the store's owner.

Counterculture

In the winter of 1968,

hippies A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

began moving into the Illinois Valley as part of the back to the land movement, notably into Takilma. Signs stating "We do not solicit hippy patronage" soon appeared in the windows of Cave Junction businesses. Despite this, the hippies stayed and became a force in the community. They founded the Takilma People's Clinic and later the Siskiyou Community Health Center, the Dome School, the Illinois Valley Fire District's Takilma station, the Siskiyou Regional Education Project and the Jefferson Baroque Orchestra. The Takilma People's Clinic was started in 1973, bringing the first new doctor to the Illinois Valley in years. The 1987 Longwood fire forced the clinic, now called the Siskiyou Community Health Center, to move into Cave Junction. It has since spawned sister clinics in

Grants Pass Grants Pass is a city in and the county seat of Josephine County, Oregon, United States. The city is located on Interstate 5 in Oregon, Interstate 5, northwest of Medford, Oregon, Medford, along the Rogue River (Oregon), Rogue River. The populatio ...

and Roseburg. The Dome School opened in 1975 as an alternative to public education. It educates about 60 preschool through high school children each year, and runs a federally funded summer program for at risk children. The Illinois Valley Fire District's Takilma station was organized in the late 1970s and worked the firelines during the 1987 Longwood fire. The Jefferson Baroque Orchestra was formed in 1994 by Takilma resident Jim Rich, and is now in its 20th season, with performances in Grants Pass and Ashland. Many of the hippies were activists from California universities. They created Takilma's environmental organization, the Siskiyou Regional Education Project, in 1982. A 1996 proposal for a prison near Cave Junction and Takilma brought the two communities together, but environmental issues still create a divide between them.

References

External links

Takilma Community Association
{{Authority control Unincorporated communities in Josephine County, Oregon Census-designated places in Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon

Demographics

History

Counterculture

See also

References

External links