In the past 65 years we have collected and preserved almost a million artifacts and their accompanying stories. And we have shared them with thousands of children and adults who have visited our museums, attended our programs, and marveled over our the treasures in our Research Library.

Our collection represents the pride and the pain of people who have lived in the Rogue Valley. We have baskets and tools from the earliest inhabitants. We have letters and journals from the first families who arrived in wagons and on foot. We have the tools they used to dig their gardens, and the clothing they wore when they did it. We have treasures that range from the tiniest of fleas to the fanciest of firetrucks.

Our historical properties include a 37-acre Century Farm, listed on the National Registry for Historic places that still plows the fields with draft horses; and the History Center, an art deco revival 1940s "ocean liner" shaped building located in historic downtown Medford.

And, in our Research Library, we have nearly 100,000 photos  - of the miners and loggers, socialites and visionaries who believed that Jackson County was worth whatever sacrifices they had made to live here.

Of course, we couldn’t have done it without our own group of visionaries – men and women who took a stand in 1946 when people wanted to tear down the old Courthouse in Jacksonville. The railroad had bypassed the town 20 years earlier, a new courthouse was built in Medford, and the two-story brick building on Fifth Street had been left to ruin.

That group became the Southern Oregon Historical Society. And the courthouse still stands today - the first artifact collected, preserved and shared, for you.

Read more about our SOHS Strategic Plan and the Strategic Direction for Hanley Farm.