Pounds and pounds of gold came out of Sterling Creek Mine in the late 1990s, nuggets as big as your fist. Glenn Wadstein conceived of a sand and gravel operation that was efficient, productive and profitable, and restored the land after extraction. You'll see the equipment that Wadstein designed, the fruits of his labors, and hear some remarkable stories about what might seem unimaginable today.
Stories of mills, mines, forests, and fields: Southern Oregon’s landscape, economy, and demographics have changed significantly since the donation land claims of the mid-1800s. Thanks to grants from the Oregon Heritage Commission and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Southern Oregon University has been collecting the oral histories and photographs of heritage families and publishing these to the Southern Oregon Digital Archives.