Old Placer Mine

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

From the record

One of 69 National Register listings published here for Josephine County · listed in 2001 · category: Site.

Sources: the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Approx. .65 mi. W. of Jct. of Rockydale Rd. and BLM Rd. 40-8-15, Cave Junction, 97523
When was it listed? October 2001
Category. site
Also known as. Upper Illinois Valley, Oregon Mining Resources MPS
Census division. Cave Junction
National Register reference number. 01001140 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

390 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 390 fires within 5 miles of Old Placer Mine between 1992 and 2020, burning about 550 acres in total. 46 started naturally. 47 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Equipment and vehicle use	78
Smoking	48
Arson/incendiarism	47
Natural	46
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	39
Debris and open burning	32
Recreation and ceremony	30
Other causes	24
Power generation/transmission/distribution	20
Misuse of fire by a minor	17
Fireworks	8
Firearms and explosives use	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2005	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Grants Pass Unit	CASCADE DR
9 September 2005	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Grants Pass Unit	OLD STAGE RD
9 September 1995	Smoking	under an acre	Grants Pass Unit	FORKS PARK #2
8 September 2015	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Medford District	REDWOOD HWY 27752
8 September 2006	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	Grants Pass Unit	OLD STAGE ROAD
8 September 1998	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Grants Pass Unit	HAYSTACK
7 September 2007	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Grants Pass Unit	HOLLAND LOOP ROAD 2612
7 September 1994	Smoking	under an acre	Grants Pass Unit	REDWOOD HWY. MP 33

Every fire recorded in Josephine County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 93 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 93 workings within 5 miles of Old Placer Mine: 44 past producers, 18 occurrences, 17 producers, 8 prospects. 17 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Chromium, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Copper. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Atlas Gold Dredging	Gold, Iridium, Platinum	Producer	Stream Placer
Bailey Mine/Waldo Area Placers	Gold, PGE	Past Producer
Daisy	Gold, Copper	Occurrence	Bornite, Chalcopyrite, Gold, Malachite
Deep Gravel Mine	Gold, Iridium, Osmium, Platinum	Producer	1874
Esterley Chrome Mine	Chromium, Iridium, Palladium, Ruthenium, Rhodium, Platinum	Past Producer	Chromite
Esterley Chromite Mine	Chromium, Uranium, PGE	Past Producer
Esterley Placer	Gold, Silver, Platinum, Chromium, Iridium, Ruthenium, Rhodium, Palladium, Osmium	Producer	Stream Placer
Josephine Creek	Nickel, Chromium, Cobalt, Iron	Past Producer
Queen of Bronze Mine	Copper, Gold, Silver, Zinc	Past Producer	1862, 1903
Rough and Ready Outwash	Chromium, Nickel, Cobalt	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Josephine County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Logan Cut	0.5 miles	2001
Logan Drain Ditches	0.8 miles	2001
Logan Drain Ditches	1.0 miles	2001
Esterly Pit No. 2-Llano De Oro Mine	1.3 miles	2001
Logan Cut	1.7 miles	2001
Logan Wash Ditch	1.7 miles	2001

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 01001140 in Record Group 79.
Josephine County	All 69 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.