Peter Sage grew melons under the Table Rocks, melons that put him through Harvard University. His great great grandfather Stephen Nealon first settled on the property in the 1850s, and on his death deeded a narrow strip of land to each of his 9 children. Each strip, between 100-200 feet wide was bounded by the Rogue River. Peter Sage talks of his family heritage, land use legislation here in Jackson County and growing melons on Table Rock Road.
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.
