Wilbur 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 Douglas 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. Wilbur is located along

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 ...

north of

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

. It was originally named Bunton's Gap, but the town was renamed Wilbur after James H. Wilbur. Wilbur started a school on his own land in Bunton's Gap in 1854; in 1857, under the name Umpqua, the college was chartered by the

Oregon Territorial Legislature Oregon's Territorial Legislature was a bicameral legislative body created by the United States Congress in 1848 as the legislative branch of the government of the Oregon Territory. The upper chamber Council and lower chamber House of Represent ...

and also affiliated with the

Methodist Church Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

. A new two-story school was built, and Wilbur deeded his land to the academy's trustees. For many years, Umpqua Academy was the only higher education institution between Salem and Sacramento. The academy closed in 1900. A group for former students and faculty, Umpqua Academy Association, existed from the 1870s until 1930. The Association's papers are held at the University of Oregon. Wilbur today includes a church, a store, a post office within the store, and a graveyard.

References

Unincorporated communities in Douglas County, Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon {{DouglasCountyOR-geo-stub