Town file
Cave Junction, Oregon
Cave Junction, Oregon (Josephine County, Oregon) is the town in one episode of Small Town Murder, the comedy true-crime podcast: episode 89, "Pollinations & Decapitations" (11 October 2018). Cave Junction sits in Josephine County in the far south-west corner of Oregon, one county in from the Pacific and close to the California line.
- Town
- Cave Junction
- County
- Josephine County
- State
- Oregon
- Country
- USA
- Episodes
- 89
- Approximate location
- 42.167, -123.648
Episode 89 / 11 October 2018 / 148 min / full
Pollinations & Decapitations
"We're going to Cave Junction, Oregon... It's in Josephine County, Oregon, zip code 97523." about 0:09:24
The case: Murder of Laura Britton (1987); Death of Rosalyn Leva (January 1978). Read the case file.
The figures, as told in 2018
- Population
- 1,932
- Median age
- 50.6
- Median household income
- $26,000
- Median home value
- $202,600
- Two-bedroom rent
- about $960 a month
- Cost of living
- 96
- Religious
- 26.2%
- Property crime
- ▲ about a third higher
- Violent crime
- ▲ almost double
History, in brief
- The Takelma Indians lived in the Illinois Valley for thousands of years. about 0:12:03
- Gold was discovered around 1850, in the early 1850s, and the Rogue River Wars followed as settlers moved in. about 0:15:43
- A treaty in 1853 put most of the Takelma on the Table Rock Reservation. about 0:15:52
- In 1856 they were moved again to another reservation. about 0:16:00
- The first gold nugget in Oregon history was found in the Illinois Valley. about 0:16:42
- The largest gold nugget found in Oregon, 17 pounds, was also found in the Illinois Valley. about 0:16:49
- An 18-year-old named Ray Briggs found the 17-pound nugget in 1904 while hunting along Sucker Creek, at what was called the Wounded Buck Mine, and was soon murdered in the woods. about 0:17:04
- The original settlement in the area of the gold strike was called Waldo. about 0:18:17
- At one point three thousand miners came in, 1,500 white miners and 1,500 Chinese miners. about 0:18:35
- Gold mining was the major source of income for a long time and dwindled in the 1860s and 1870s. about 0:22:33
- Before the Second World War the area was ranching, fishing, logging and tourism; afterwards agriculture and timber, with 30 lumber mills operating in the Illinois Valley. about 0:23:17
- By the late 1980s there was one lumber mill left. about 0:23:44
- In 1874 Elijah Davidson found a cave on a hunting trip; it became the Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve, a 4,554-acre park. about 0:24:49
- In 1884 Walter C. Birch staked a squatters' claim at the mouth of the caves and, with his brother-in-law, charged a dollar for a tour. about 0:25:16
- In 1926 the town was known as Cave City; it became Cave Junction when the post office came, because 'city' implied incorporation and the town was not incorporated. about 0:27:26
Nearest Small Town Murder towns
- Kerby, Oregon2.3 miles
- Grants Pass, Oregon24 miles
- Wimer, Oregon37 miles
- Wolf Creek, Oregon39 miles
- Springfield, Oregon135 miles
- Alsea, Oregon153 miles
Everything here is as told in the episode, on the date it went out; figures and places may have changed since. Endings are covered: open an episode and use the spoiler switch to read them.