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One of the earliest gold discoveries in Southern Oregon came at the mouth of this creek, where it enters the Illinois River a few hundred yards from here. By 1852 hundreds of small-scale placer mines were tearing up Josephine Creek, and hundreds more on other tributaries of the Illinois River below Eight Dollar Mountain, as well as far upstream into the Siskyous to the California border. Later, heavy-duty hydraulic mining methods in the Illinois and Rogue river drainages destroyed many natural stream banks, turning once swift-running streams into broad gravel washes or obliterating them altogether.

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