GL Swanson Homes Blog

Why "Piggy" Banks?   Have you ever wondered why so many coin banks are shaped like pigs? Many, many years ago, dishes and cookware in Europe were made of a dense orange clay called "pygg."  People saved coins in jars made of this clay, and so the jars became known as "pygg" banks. At some point a...

Exploring Eight Dollar Mountain - Josephine County, Oregon The Golden Valley of the Illinois River again beckoned, as we continued our search along Eight Dollar Mountain. This is where some say Josephine County's gold rush all started. Just a short distance upstream from Eight Dollar bridge is wh...

Price Reduction on Home and Property For Sale - 425 Crow Road, Merlin, Oregon $299,000 MLS #52914614 One Owner, Custom Built Tom Martin Home and Property For Sale. Beautiful, private setting on 2.71 manicured acres, fully fenced.  Land on other side of Crow Rd. is BLM. Mature trees & fabulous lan...

Newman United Methodist Church - Grants Pass, Oregon One of our final, and surprisingly one of the most historic stops on the Josephine County Historical Society's "Passport To History" program was the Newman United Methodist Church in downtown Grants Pass. We were met by Darrell and Margaret Sta...

Sterling Mine Ditch Trail - Jacksonville, Oregon When James Sterling and Aaron Davies found gold in 1854, within two years a town was booming. Sterlingville had boarding houses, general stores, saloons, a barber shop, casino, dance-hall, and a lot of houses.  With a population of 1,500 it had its...

Bolan Mountain - History and Hiking in Josephine County, Oregon Would you pay pure gold to bowl in the wilderness?  Well, the Oregon gold miners did, and they paid plenty! In 1853, Oregon's gold rush was in full swing, and there were, as always, those who would find ways to obtain gold without ha...

Tannen Lakes, Josephine County, Oregon A little over an hour from Grants Pass reaches the fringe of the Klamath National Forest, and Tannen Lakes, two beautiful, green, mountain lakes.   We drove on a series of gravel mountain roads until we were stopped by a huge washed-out ravine that pronounce...

Briggs Creek Trail, Josephine County, Oregon Our latest exploration led to us to the wilderness once again. The gold-mining town of Briggs, Oregon only lasted about two years until the miners' moved on in search of better gold fields. The crude grave of Sam Brown lies atop a small knoll near the ...

Grayback Mountain Bigfoot - Josephine County, Oregon Searching for Bigfoot was not on the agenda when we hiked up Grayback Mountain, as we had read about the trail from a hiking book. I just wish I had shed an extra ten pounds first! We followed a well-marked, steep trail for the majority of the ...

July 2010 Homes For Sale in Grants Pass, Oregon The following results for the month of July 2010 for Grants Pass were compiled from records of single-family residential homes listed with the Southern Oregon Multiple Listing Service. This inventory may be misleading when you consider all of those ...