A friend and I went to Jacksonville, Oregon over the long Memorial Day weekend, and it was SO worth the four-hour drive from Portland! Population 2,844, Jacksonville is a beautiful little 1850's gold-rush town filled with Oregon history. The downtown is still intact with the old buildings from the past, filled with great restaurants, boutiques, art shops and wine tasting rooms. The area is know for great wine from the Applegate Valley Wine Trail that is home to twenty small wineries. The area is beautiful, the people are very friendly, and the town is pristine. I originally wanted to go to pick up a piece of pottery that local artist, John Dodero custom made for me, but it turned into a fun, weekend in a beautiful, little, historic Oregon town. Well worth the four-hour drive from Portland down I-5.
See a video of the history of Jacksonville along with a few of my pics from the trip below.