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Did you know that Jacksonville reportedly provided the first ambulance service west of the Rockies? This newspaper photo pretty much speaks for itself. It also tells us to be very grateful for Mercy Flights, our local ground and air ambulance service! We should mention that Mercy Flights also boasts its own first—the nation’s first non-profit air ambulance service. Mercy Flights was founded in 1949 by Medford air traffic controller George Milligan after a friend died of po

Have you ever wondered about the names “Old Stage Road” or “South Stage Road” for the streets leading north and south from Jacksonville? Well, you can’t have stage service without roads. Regular stage service for the area did not begin until the mid-1850s and the stops were Ashland, Jacksonville, and Rock Point (near Gold Hill). The route to Yreka was not a road; it was a rough and difficult passage best made on foot or horseback. The Siskiyou Mountain Wagon Road, a toll r

Before the Jacksonville Trolley began offering narrated history tours, visitors and residents alike could board a stagecoach operated by George McUne for a 15-minute tour of the town. After traveling in a covered wagon from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon as part of Oregon’s 1959 Centennial Wagon Train, McUne had sent to the Smithsonian for original Wells Fargo stagecoach plans and handcrafted a replica. In 1961, he began offering stagecoach tours of Jacksonville. The coach