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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels March 22, 2004 City looks at use of historic site By Vickie Aldous Ashland Daily Tidings Historic preservationists are asking whether a local gun club should be using the site where early townsfolk tapped into Lithia Springs in the hopes of transforming Ashland into a famous mineral water health resort. Ashland Gun Club Vice President Bill Longiotti examines the remnants of an old water pump station on city-owned land near the city airport Satsuki Doi | Ashland Daily Tidings "It's such a huge part of Ashland's historical past," said Dale Shostrom, chair of the Ashland Historic Commission. "We all feel it ought to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. We're just questioning whether the gun club use is compatible. It may be. We're not saying it couldn't be. We're just asking questions and we don't have all the answers." Members of the Ashland Gun Club said they are protecting the historic features at the site east of the city near the municipal airport. "We keep all those areas protected," said Bill Longiotti, gun club vice president. "We don't shoot around those. As a group, we've been preserving the place." Early Ashland dreams As far back as 1987, historians warned the gun club's use of the site could jeopardize its chances of being listed on the National Register of Historic Places. "The current use of the property by the Ashland Gun Club is a serious threat to the integrity of the site, as all of the features exhibit scars from bullets, and some features have been seriously scarred," Nan Hannon and Clayton Lebow wrote in a 1987 assessment of historic resources at Lithia Springs. "We therefore recommend that this use of the Lithia Springs property be discontinued as soon as possible." The issue came to the forefront again last month when the gun club asked the Ashland Parks and Recreation Commission, which has jurisdiction over the site, for a 20-year lease extension. The commission has not acted on that request pending further research. According to Hannon and Lebow's report, early Ashland settler Harry Silver and his partner G.H. Gillette began bottling and selling water from Lithia Springs - so-called because of the unusually high concentration of lithium in the water - in 1907 to residents who believed in the medicinal value of the mineral water. With visions of Ashland becoming a world-class health resort, residents passed a $175,000 bond in 1914 and built a piping system to bring the water to Lithia Park, the railroad depot, the downtown plaza and other locations. But those dreams collapsed with the advent of World War I and the Depression that followed. "Although Ashland did not prosper as a health resort, the promotion of the Lithia Springs was directly connected with the development of Lithia Park, the Lithia water fountains and the Lithia Springs Hotel," now known as the Ashland Springs Hotel, Hannon and Lebow wrote. Beginning in 1944, carbon dioxide extracted from the Lithia Springs water was used to make dry ice. Worries about preservation The Ashland Gun Club has its own relatively lengthy history at the site. Members began leasing the grounds in 1968 from the Ashland Parks and Recreation Department. The club now counts more than 400 families as members, according to Longiotti. The Jefferson State Regulators, history buffs who dress as cowboys, shoot during mock scenarios at the range. Archers and skeet shooters also use the site, he said. The facilities are used for training exercises by the Ashland and Talent police departments and the Oregon National Guard, and serve as a site for gun safety courses for the public, according to Longiotti. Additionally, the Ashland-based U.S. Fish & Wildlife Forensic Laboratory occasionally fires weapons at the range to make matches with evidence found during investigations of wildlife killings, he said. With all the use at the gun club, members have taken measures to protect the historic structures near the shooting range. They have brought in fill dirt to build berms around the firing areas, installed an electric gate to prevent unauthorized use and require new members attend an orientation. Some of the historic areas do show signs of damage from bullets, Longiotti agreed. "A long time ago, there was some indiscriminate shooting. It was not done by the gun club," he said. "Since we've been there, we've protected the area." In order to safeguard the environment from lead contamination, the gun club monitors the berms and removes projectiles when necessary, according to Longiotti. Uses of the site are restricted because the area lies within the floodplain. The gun club has only temporary structures there, and uses vault toilets that are regularly pumped. The site also lacks potable water, he said. Shostrom said the historic commission wants the parks commission to consider all alternative uses for the site and the ramifications of a lease extension. "Because the lease has been extended a number of times, our concern is that after the study in 1987 and the recommendation that the gun club was probably not a compatible use for preserving the site, we were surprised that nobody had addressed that," he said. The original Lithia water pump station, which is still standing, could be used as a historic wayside for users of the Bear Creek Greenway, which is slated to be extended along Emigrant Creek, according to Shostrom. Parks department staff plan to set up a tour of the site for members of the historic commission, parks commission and gun club as the parks commission continues to grapple with how best to deal with the historic property. "We have no problem working with the historic commission," Longiotti said. "We want to work with the community. We want people to get over the idea that anybody with a gun is a nasty person." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams