• … Rocky Point, Upper Klamath Lake, Fort Klamath, Crater Lake, Klamath Development Company
• … Transportation, Logging. Railroads, Power, Communications, Mining
• … Reclamation, Farming, Merrill, Malin, Tulelake
• … Klamath Falls, Jacksonville, Medford, Ashland
• … Indians, Klamath & Yainax Agency, Chiloquin, Spring Creek, Sprague
1860
• Oregon’s population is 52,465. United States population is 31,443,321.
• United States Civil War begins.
• Jackonsville is incorporated with a population of 500 – 600.
• Pike’s Peak gold was minted into $10 coins.
• Quartz Mine, the Gold Hill mine, discovered in Rogue valley.
1861
• A new mail route from Sacramento to Portland guarantees delivery in seven days.
•1861-62: Major winter flooding in Oregon and Northern California. Heavy snowfall followed by warm thawing rains.
• • Oregon volunteer party makes route from Rocky Point to settlements in Rogue Valley. Capt. Lindsey Applegate and company circle Upper Klamath Lake and return to Ashland via dead Indian country.
• November 21, recruiting poster hangs in Jacksonville for cavalry to be situated in Fort Klamath.
1862
• May 10, Oregon Portage Railroad puts into operation for the first steam locomotive in the northwest.
• Homestead law goes into effect giving 160 acres per person.
1863
• • Colonel Drew builds a bad road, Rancheree Trail, from Jacksonville to Fort Klamath.
• George Nurse contracted to provide hay for Fort Klamath.
• Alexander Martin, doing business in Jacksonville under the name Glen, Drum and Company furnished supplies for the Army when the new fort site, Fort Klamath, was selected to be built in the Wood River Valley.
1864
• April, B.J. Pengra promotes the Oregon Central Military Wagon Road from Eugene through present day Klamath County to Winnemucca, Neveda. This is known as “Oregon Branch Pacific Railroad.”
• First telegraph line to Jacksonville.
• October 14, U.S. Government signs great Treaty of Council Grove with Klamath, Modoc and Yahooskin Band of Snake Indians. Indians cede 22 million acres of land for non-Indian settlement. Indians keep 2.7 million acres which becomes the Klamath Indian Reservation. Both Old Schonchin and Captain Jack are signatories.
•1864-08: Each Indian man, woman and child placed on the reservation and their descendants living on or off its bounds was alloted 160 acres of potential farmland.
• Oregon Legislature offers $250,000 to any firm to lay 100 miles of track south of Portland.
• Elisha Steele, acting Superintendent of Indian Affairs, chooses Captain Jack over John Schonchin as Chief of the Modocs. Other notes indicate Captain Jack was elected.
• David Linn set up a sawmill on Linn (Fort) Creek.
• Construction begun on building Fort Klamath.
• George Nurse set up a Sutlers (?) store at Fort Klamath
• While the old Modoc chief, Schochin, remained in the reservation, Kintupash, Captain Jack, returned to Lost River and led an abusive harassment demanding rent for the occupation of “their land”, which most settlers paid.
• 1864-66 Agent Lindsay Applegate tries, and fails, to negotiate with Captain Jack on behalf of the settlers.
1865
• The US Civil War comes to an end after four years of fighting and 620,000 Union and Confederate soldiers dead.
• Mrs. O.T. Brown and Miss Annie Gaines (namesake for Annie Creek) are the first white women to visit Crater lake and to descend from the rim.
• • Road survey from Fort Klamath to Jacksonville via a route similar to present day Highway 62.
• August 25, Modocs complain through Elijah Steele and A. M. Rosborough about the Huntington treaty, stating their wish to remain in their own country.
• November, Modocs disputes continue among the Modocs over the treaty. The Army offers to send troops to support Old Schonchin, who favors the treaty. Captain Jack’s attitude at this time is unknown.
• Whitehall boats used to move supplies on Upper Klamath Lake from Rocky Point to Fort Klamath.
• Ball Mountain Road opens for packtrain travel between Yreka and present day Klamath County.
1866
• O.C. Applegate names Pelican Bay.
• First political delegate from present day Klamath County, O.A. Sterns gets a furlough from Fort Klamath to attend Republican County Convention in Jacksonville.
• First grain and vegetables are grown at Kowasta, a temporary Indian Agency at the head of navigation on Upper Klamath Lake.
• Lindsay Applegate brought supplies, tools and men to build log buildings near the mouth of the Wood River for Klamath Indian Agency to which he had recently appointed to head.
• Major Rinehart, in command at Fort Klamath, sent 80 men under the command of Captain Kelly, with one piece of artillery, across the south end of oregon to Pueblo Valley in Nevada, near present day Denio, for protection of settlers and the mail route from present day Susanville, California to Silver City, Idaho.
• May 12, Klamath Agency begins operations on the shores of Upper Klamath Lake.
• Samuel D. Whitmore is in charge of the new Klamath Agency when L. Applegate returned to his home.
• Belgian Wendolyn Nus brings a herd of cattle to present day Klamath County and becomes first settler. He is killed at the beginning of the Modoc Wars.
1867
• George Nurse establishes Linkville.
• George Nurse secures permits to ferry across Link River.
• Regular army troops from Fort Bidwell relieve the volunteers at Fort Klamath.
• The Growler , a newspaper, starts at Fort Klamath.
• First known Basin homestead, O.A. Sterns and Lewellyn Carter.
• October, Superintendent Huntington leaves The Dalles with $35,000 worth of provisions promised the Indians in 1864.
• November 16, Klamath sub-Chief Blow requests that a witness be present at the distribution of goods to report on their quality to Washington DC. The request is not honored, and shows “a predisposition to be dissatisfied” according to the authorities.
• Superintendent Huntington tries, and fails, to negotiate with Captain Jack.
• November, Annuity goods are distributed. A small number of Modocs under Old Sconchin come for shares and settle on the reservation. The large number, under Captain Jack, refuse both to take goods or settle on the reservation, they remain in their old country.
1868
• Two farmers dig first irrigation ditch in the Upper Klamath Basin.
• Flat bottom barge, 15 – 20 tons, is used by Fort Klamath soldiers on Upper Klamath Lake.
• • Spring, Fort Klamath soldiers plant a large produce garden at the southend of Upper Klamath Lake at Bennett’s Point directly across from Buck Island on the west side of the lake.
• There were a half-dozen shacks in Linkville: soldiers, Indians, trappers and hunters made up most of the population.
• • Spring, temporary cabins are built at the site that would become the permanent Indian Agency in Chiloquin. A dam with a 1500 foot mill race is built nearby.
• William S. Moore arrives at the Klamath Agency to construct a larger mill for the government.
• First reported non-Indian born in what will become Klamath County.
• Chief La-Lakes is placed in charge of the Williamson River Ferry in recognition for his past services.
• The Klamath Tribes hold their first election to replace Chief La-Lakes. Allen David wins as 500-600 Indians vote on the banks of the Williamson River near the present day Indian Church.
• George Nurse and Joe Conger built a ditch to irrigate gardens on the east side of Link River. This would become a part of the Steele-Ankeny Ditch.
• Christopher Latham Sales invented the typewriter.
• • Fort Klamath soldiers harvest produce garden.
• Mrs. Addie Clark was the first white girl to reside in Linkville and attended school with five other pupils.
• December 25, Ernest Union Lee is the first white child born at the Klamath Agency.
1869
• Sam Colver takes charge of the county road from Ashland into present day Klamath County, now known as the Green Springs Highway. Colver, O.T. Brown and William Songer are appointed as”viewers” with J.S. Howard as surveyor
• Indian school for Modoc children opens at the Klamath Indian Reservation. Ivan. D. Applegate trains four Indian boys at Yainax subagency. Other notes mention Snake Indians.
• First bicycles were invented.
• Naylor Hockenhouse erects the first privately owned sawmill in the Upper Klamath Basin.
• May 1, Alfred B. Meacham replaces Huntington as Oregon’s Superintendent of Indian Affairs.
• May 10, the Golden spike ceremony is held at Promontory, Utah connecting the first transcontinental railroad.
• Forty-five Privates come from Crescent City to join the army at Fort Klamath.
• A gang of white men are found in the Siskiyou Mountains and hung for robbery.
• Captain O.C. Knapp replaces Lindsay Applegate as Indian agent for the Klamath reservation.
• David Lynn and others from Fort Klamath build a boat to go on Crater Lake.
• B.D. Worthington surveys a road from Butte Creek, Fish Lake, the unnamed Lake of the woods, Aspen Lake to Linkville.
• Suez Canal is completed.
• The present day Southern Oregon College at Ashland begins as a Methodist Institution, Ashland Academy.
• James Sutton and David Lynn bring a canvas boat from Jacksonville and put the first boat into Crater Lake.
• October, local settlers apparently petition General Crook to roundup up the Modoc Indians and moved them to the Klamath Reservation. Soon after Meachem and Knapp confer on how to make this happen.
• December 13, Meachem, Knapp, Ivan Applegate and others set off to persuade Captain Jack’s Modocs to come onto the Klamath reservation. A party of soldiers goes with them as far as link River.
• December 18, The Lost River Council: Meachem and others talk with Modocs about going on the reservation. Captain Jack seems willing to consider the idea. Shaman, Curley Headed Doctor, is opposed and after the Council he proposes to kill the party. Negotiations continue for several days.
• December 23, soldiers arrive in the early morning hours, and a number of Modoc warriors flee. Meacham placed the remaining women and children in wagons and started for the reservation. He allowed “Queen Mary”, Captain Jack’s sister, to go meet with Captain Jack to persuade him to move to the reservation. She succeeded.
• December 24, several days are spent sending messages to the leaders: they finally return, and the entire group is escorted to the reservation.
• December 30, Modoc Indians arrive at Modoc Point, on the Klamath Reservation, to stay with Captain Jack.
• December 31, a ceremony of reconciliation between the Klamath and Modoc is staged and the annuity goods are distributed to all.
• … Rocky Point, Upper Klamath Lake, Fort Klamath, Crater Lake, Klamath Development Company
• … Transportation, Logging. Railroads, Power, Communications, Mining
• … Reclamation, Farming, Merrill, Malin, Tulelake
• … Klamath Falls, Jacksonville, Medford, Ashland
• … Indians, Klamath & Yainax Agency, Chiloquin, Spring Creek, Sprague
• Klamath Basin Timeline: Before 1500 … Islands, Mountains, and People
• Klamath Basin Timeline: 1500 – 1839 … England, Spain, Russia
• Klamath Basin Timeline: 1840 – 1859 … Trappers, Gold and Trails
• Klamath Basin Timeline: 1860 – 1869 … Applegates and Captain Jack
• Klamath Basin Timeline: 1870 – 1879 … Strongholds and Swamplands
• Klamath Basin Timeline: 1880 – 1889 … Klamath County and Newspapers
• Klamath Basin Timeline: 1890 – 1899 … Merrill, Flour and Potatoes.
• Klamath Basin Timeline: 1900 – 1909 … Steamboats and Locomotives
• Klamath Basin Timeline: 1910 – 1919 … Automobiles and Movies
• Klamath Basin Timeline: 1920 – 1929 … Recreation and Refuge
• Klamath Basin Timeline: 1930 – 1939 … Depression, Sporting and Tulelake
• Klamath Basin Timeline: 1940 – 1949 … Internment and Homesteading
1950 – 1999… Timber, Ranches, Boomers
2000 – Present… Legislation, Court decisions, Science Studies
Modoc Indian War… Indians, Settlers, U.S. Army
Acknowledgements
Bill and LoEtta Cadman, Ina and Roy Reed, Pat McMillian, William Brady,
Andrew Ortis, John Pratt, Art Eggleston, Rob Crawford – Crawford Farms,
Bev Wampler, Gayle and Chuck Jaynes, Richard Kopczak and
Cindy Wright are some of the many folks that allowed access to their
libraries and, or, shared information to help Anders compile
the above timelines.