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Photo from Mail Tribune files President Gerald Ford is one of the handful of presidents who have visited the Rogue Valley. Ford stopped at the Medford-Jackson County Airport in 1976, getting a hug as well as a T-shirt. Presidential visits: 4 and holding Area's apparently not on the `A' list By JIM DAVIS Medford and Jackson County residents can look back today -- Presidents Day -- on a rather sparse presidential history. Just four presidents have made a total of four presidential visits to Jackson County, according to a survey of Mail Tribune records and other historical reference materials. And Jackson County apparently even suffered through nearly a century drought of presidential visitations. But at least the area has seen a president once each of the past three decades. The first known presidential visit to Jackson County came in September 1880: Republican President Rutherford Hayes was touring the West Coast for recreation and observation, traveling from Sacramento to Portland by stagecoach, according to "As It Was, Stories from Southern Oregon and Northern California." Stopping for the night in Jackson County, Hayes and his entourage made for the U.S. Hotel in Jacksonville, where the president gave a speech from the balcony and then enjoyed a party set in his honor. The next morning, the owner of the hotel gave a bill to the president's secretary, who was astonished at the $15 charge for room and board for each member of the group. "My dear madame," the secretary said, "we wished only to stay the night, not to buy the hotel." Apparently word of the hotel rates spread back East: Another president didn't come to Jackson County for 96 years. But that didn't mean famous faces didn't pass through. Although the record is unclear, President Teddy Roosevelt may have come through Jackson County in 1903 when he was riding on a train to a scheduled speech in Grants Pass. But he didn't stop in Jackson County. For that matter, he didn't appear in Josephine County either: The train engineer forgot to stop the train in Grants Pass, disappointing two bands and a large crowd that had turned out for his arrival, according to "As It Was." President Herbert C. Hoover, who lived for a time in Newberg as a boy, visited Jackson County on fishing trips before and after his presidency, but never during. And John F. Kennedy visited Medford in March 1959 to speak at the annual Roosevelt Memorial Dinner held by the Jackson County Democrats, staying at the Medford Hotel. But he was Sen. Kennedy at the time, and he never made it back as president. Richard Nixon visited the Rogue Valley several times, but not as a president. Finally, in May 1976, President Gerald Ford stopped at the Medford-Jackson County airport, getting a hug as well as a T-shirt from Medfordites. On that particular weekend, Medford became a hot spot for aspiring presidential candidates. Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, and Rosalynn Carter also came to Medford. Then-Gov. Jimmy Carter was supposed to join his wife, but his plane was delayed by repairs in San Francisco. By the time Carter's plane was ready, the Medford airport was closed -- because of President Ford, Air Force One and the accompanying security. Carter instead went to Idaho. After Ford's visit, then-California Gov. Jerry Brown and Ronald Reagan stopped off in the Rogue Valley. The next trip was nearly a decade later. In October 1984, Reagan -- who had attained the Oval Office -- stopped off in Medford on the campaign trail. His trip, however, was marred by partisan politics: Several school bands had wanted to play for the president, but had to cancel because of fear of using taxpayers' money to transport children to a political event. The last time a president visited the Rogue Valley came nearly seven years ago. In September 1992, President George Bush swung through Medford and White City promoting timber industry jobs -- as well as campaigning against presidential hopeful William Jefferson Clinton. During the visit, Bush met privately in a hangar of the airport with 40 people who contributed at least $1,000 to the Republican's "Victory 92" campaign. In his six years of office, Clinton has never made a presidential trip to Jackson County. As of last Friday, however, Clinton now has a second chance. (Mail Tribune staffer Pam Sieg and former Mail Tribune reporter Peggyann Hutchinson contributed to this story.) Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA