Jackson County, Oregon

Jackson County is a located in the  of. In 2000, its population was 181,269. It for  the seventh. The of the county is.

Economy
The county's principal industries are, lumber, manufacturing, and tourism.

Jackson County has over 10,000 acres (40 km²) of orchards and shares with  the Rogue Valley and Applegate.

, a substance used in art sculpture, is mined in Jackson County. 

Geography
According to the, the county has a total area of 7,257 (2,802 ). 7,214 km² (2,785 sq mi) of it is land and 43 km² (17 sq mi) of it (0.59%) is water.

Adjacent Counties

 * - (west)
 * - (east)
 * - (north)
 * - (south)

Demographics
As of the of 2000, there were 181,269 people, 71,532 households, and 48,427 families residing in the county. The was 25/km² (65/sq mi). There were 75,737 housing units at an average density of 10/km² (27/sq mi). The racial makeup of the county was 91.65%, 0.40% or , 1.09% , 0.90% , 0.18% , 2.88% from , and 2.91% from two or more races. 6.69% of the population were or  of any race. 17.4% were of, 12.9% , 10.2% and 8.8%  or American ancestry according to. 92.7% spoke and 5.6%  as their first language.

Of the 71,532 households, 30.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.20% were living together, 10.50% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.30% were non-families. 25.10% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 2.95.

In the county, the population was spread out with 24.40% under the age of 18, 8.70% from 18 to 24, 25.50% from 25 to 44, 25.40% from 45 to 64, and 16.00% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 94.60 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.70 males.

The median income for a household in the county was $36,461, and the median income for a family was $43,675. Males had a median income of $32,720 versus $23,690 for females. The for the county was $19,498. About 8.90% of families and 12.50% of the population were below the, including 16.30% of those under age 18 and 6.90% of those age 65 or over.

History
,, , , and Indian tribes are all native to the present boundaries of Jackson County. In the early 1850s, both the s from the north and the Deschutes from the south raided and settled the area.

The Territorial Legislature created Jackson County on, , from the southwestern portion of and the unorganized area south of  and  Counties. It included lands which now lie in, , , and  Counties. Gold discoveries in the Rogue and Illinois River valleys near in 1852 and the completion of a wagon road connecting the county with California to the south and Douglas County to the north led to an influx of non-native settlers.

Conflict between the miners and Native Americans led to war in 1853, which continued intermittently until the final defeat of the last band under chiefs John and George by a combined force of regular army and civilians, at Big Bend on the Illinois River. The Native Americans had received the worse of the fighting throughout this conflict, and as they began to surrender, they were herded to existing reservations, beginning in January, 1856 when one group was marched to the west of. Over the following months, other groups were forced to leave until by May, 1857 almost all of the Shasta, Takelma, and Latgawas tribes had been relocated to the, where they remained.

Jacksonville was designated as the first county seat in 1853. However, Jacksonville declined due to diminishing returns in the local goldfields and the construction in the 1880s of the. This railroad bypassed Jacksonville and rather went near, located five miles east of Jacksonville. Medford's prospects increased precipitously because of the location of the railroad and the accompanying commerce and development as Jacksonville continued its steady decline. Jacksonville fended off suggestions to move the county seat until 1927 when Medford was finally selected as the county seat.

In March of 2004, Jackson County became the first of an eventual 35 counties to implement a voluntary plan of fireproofing homes situated on properties as part of the forestland-urban interface. This requires homeowners to maintain a 30' or greater firebreak around their structures, and affects 12,000 homeowners. In 2007 this plan becomes mandatory for many landowners, under threat of liability if their property is involved in a fire.

On May 15, 2007, residents voted not to reopen the county's 15, which have been closed since April 6 due to a shortage of funds. This was the second time that residents have voted not to fund the libraries. This was the largest library closure in the history of the. The libraries were reopened, with reduced hours, on October 24, 2007.