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Over the Back Fence By HANK HENRY Medford trolley line didn't last You wonder how they thought a trolley car could ever make it in such a small town. But in 1913, grown men with wives and families to support bought a trolley car and laid several tons of track to serve Medford. That year, the M.F. Minney construction company tried to charter an interurban trolley between Medford and Ashland. The Medford Council agreed, but Ashland wanted no part of it. Then William Barnum stepped into the scene. He was already in the transportation business as owner of the Rogue River Valley steam-driven short-line freight railroad between Jacksonville and Medford. Barnum wanted the trolley to serve Medford only, and not compete with his existing railroad. He dubbed the new line "Southern Oregon Traction." Why Barnum expected the trolley to be successful was a puzzle: The 1910 census set Medford's population at 8,840, hardly large enough to support a trolley system. Nevertheless, Barnum pressed on. He hired a former New Yorker, S.S. Bullis, to head the project. Bullis had built and operated streetcar lines in the South and East. In less than six months, the line was up and running. Then in March 1914, Bullis announced that work had begun on a two-mile extension from downtown Medford to Siskiyou Heights, the location of Sacred Heart Hospital. S.S. Bullis' son, Seth, came to Medford with his father in 1913 and was the engineer on the first project. He eventually went to work for the California-Oregon Power Co. I well remember Seth from the early 1960s when our family moved here. The City Hall was then across from the Elks Lodge on Central Avenue. The city fathers so admired Seth for attending almost every meeting as a spectator that they had a plaque attached to one of the oak chairs in the council chambers reserving it for Seth. I liked talking to him about the old days. The first route started on Main at Central and went out East Main past Eastwood and Keene Way Drive, crossed Hillcrest at Modoc, stopped at the hospital, then went down Florence to Main and back to Central. By 1917, Barnum had changed his mind about restricting the trolley to Medford and extended the service to Jacksonville. It went across the main railroad tracks to join the Jacksonville Railroad, which came in on Eighth Street. The Mail Tribune printed an editorial in 1990 about the Southern Oregon Traction Co. after some old streetcar tracks were uncovered during a resurfacing project for the Bear Creek Bridge on East Main. In the editorial was a quotation from audiotapes made by Seth Bullis. Asked why there was such a short life for small-town trolleys, he said, "Only the densest cities could afford such systems. The Jacksonville Railroad and trolley went through a lot of hands. Finally, in 1925, it was abandoned and the track and right-of-way sold to the city of Medford." Those tracks continue to turn up from time to time. A few years ago, friends of ours built a new home on Florence and learned from officials that some rails were still buried under the street in front of their house. If you'd like to see some remaining evidence of the trolley era, drive out East Main past the S-curve at the top of the little hill. Right at the top, a road takes off to the right into a cul-de-sac with several houses. Because there are no sidewalks on that side, park around the corner on Keene Way and walk back. Look closely and you will see that a streetcar rail has been driven into the ground to hold a small, thoroughly-rusted metal sign that says "MAIN ST. E." The good people at the library of the Southern Oregon Historical Society helped me to get my facts straight, and they can also answer lots of history-related questions for you. Call them at 773-6536 or stop by the old JC Penney building at 106 N. Central Ave. (Hank Henry is a retired Jackson County commissioner and a former radio and television announcer. Call him at 772-9055.) Prime Times front page Mail Tribune front page Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA