The Untold (for a reason) History ~ Jacksonville Vineyards

Planted by friends and family in 1999, our first ten acres of vines are maturing on our Jacksonville Vineyards Farmhouse Estate in the perfect Southern Oregon sunshine of the Applegate Valley. In 2001 and again 2005, we added 8 more acres of vineyards.

But there is much more to our historic homestead site than just that!

First settled in the mid 1800s, Southern Oregon’s Applegate Valley was famous for its gold rush, blah blah…

Here is what we know:

William “Skeeter” Matney traveled with his pet Irish terrier, “Higgins” across the west on foot (Skeeter had lost his right foot in a poker game in Wyoming in 1894…) to settle in Jacksonville, Oregon. Sadly, the good folks of Jacksonville saw things differently…

William was banished to the hinterlands of the Applegate Valley. Together with other Huns, like the nefarious Finkbinner clan, William settled down. “Squirt” Finkinner, a failed Big Top circus performer, years earlier had managed to herd his not-quite-famous high wire troupe of 27 house cats out west. Yeeeee Haawww kitty cats!!!

Here “Squirt” Finkbinner met with great success entertaining the more easily amused gold miners, who had nothing much better to do with their time anyway. This was before the era of HD TV, and after the Chinamen had pretty much cleaned up all the easy gold stakes.

Meanwhile, back in Jacksonville, the good folks there were enjoying the Friday night performances to be had at Sandra’s “Fly-by-night” Saloon. Sandra, a very successful palm reader from Minnesota, none-the-less, had run into trouble with the law when she had read a little too much in the hand of Princess Boo, the leading real estate queenpin of the district. Happily, they became fast friends, and (some would say a little too fast) settled on the Applegate river, counting the only real gold of that time that the Valley produced…selling land to foreigners. (See Chinamen above)

Other colorful charactors included the founding grand dame and world famous champion of the new-fangled sport of lawn tennis, "Sweet Spot" Caye. Her illicit romance with the tall stranger Dangerous David was the talk of Drake township. Later renamed Ruch, the town, and Dangerous David changed their ways. The Applegate Valley breathed easy for many years to follow.

Other than a brief period when a pack of wolves slipped into our Valley after being driven out of their previous dens by angry digger squirrels, the recorded history of our Applegate Valley has been one of peace and prosperity.

Some liberties have been taken with actual fact and at the expense of our dear neighbors, who’ve helped in transforming these sloping fields of hay into beautiful vineyards.

Submitted most respectfully for your consideration,

Dave and Pam (Boom-Boom) Palmer