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TV TALES Gold Hill comes into focus on SOPTV series City was 'the' town in Southern Oregon amid the 1800s Comment By Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 29, 2016 at 12:01 AM By Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 29, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News GOLD HILL — A new series by Southern Oregon Public Television, based around the legends and lore of local towns, will debut at 8 p.m. Sept. 6, with a jam-packed premier episode of stories from the valley's tiniest gold rush town. "Our Town: Gold Hill" is the result of a yearlong labor of love by townsfolk and a team of producers led by filmmaker and Gold Hill resident Ralph Bowman. Bowman began last winter to facilitate town meetings and storytelling sessions to uncover tales he said might have otherwise been lost to the pages of time. SOPTV producer manager Jeff LeBeau said the idea for the series is based loosely around a similar effort dubbed "Our Town," created by Western Pennsylvania State University's public media station. "What we're hoping for is that we'd like to develop a series where we're partnering with the towns all over the Southern Oregon, Northern California region," he said. "We are the community's public television so part of our mission is to preserve those stories. "Gold Hill has spent a good amount of time talking about their history and allowing us to figure out how this will work. I would imagine most towns would do the same. The goal is to, here and now, record our history for the future generations." LeBeau said residents turned out for a community meeting in February, "overflowing down the hallway" and leading the production crew to realize "this could actually work." LeBuea said he looked forward to the different character and "color" each town would bring to town-specific episodes. "Gold Hill, for example, at one time was the town. They had an opera house, they had theaters ... . Medford was nothing compared to Gold Hill," he said. "In fact, at the turn of the last century, if you were to go to their Hanby Middle School, it was a big three-story brick building when all the other schools throughout Southern Oregon were one-room wood buildings. It just shows you how much money was in Gold Hill at one time." Bowman said older residents warmed slowly to the idea of sharing their tales, eventually helping create the 15 stories contained in the episode, ranging from the mysterious nearby vortex and local hauntings to discovery of hidden mine shafts and town secrets. An admitted history buff, Bowman said the biggest challenge ended up being the task of choosing which tales, of so many told, to include. "It was really a fascinating process. It was not an easy town to work with at first, but once they understood we weren't after something they were all in," Bowman said, noting that a slew of businesses and community groups, including leadership students at Hanby, helped facilitate the project. Stories for the Gold Hill episode begin chronologically with discovery of gold at Big Bar and the Gold Hill Pocket in the late 1850s and wind their way throughout decades of challenges due to flooding between 1861, when floodwaters reached "clear to White City" and 1955 when resident Barney Governor was rescued after being stranded on the roof of his home for 12 hours. Favorite tidbits for Bowman included stories of how involved the local Odd Fellows had been in the town (since the late 1800s), the salmon festival by local Native Americans and both historic and present-day gold panning in the town born from a gold strike. Lebeau said Bowman was instrumental in helping the series' first episode come together along with help from local government, county and state entities and numerous community members and businesses. Bowman said it was exciting to see the final result of a small town working together to preserve bits of history. "I think the most interesting thing in this first process was we have this little town with no bank, no hospital, not even an ATM," said Bowman. "And the whole town stepped up to put this thing together." SOPTV plans a soft premiere for participants of the episode with a first public airing at 8 p.m. Sept. 6 and a re-airing slated for 8 p.m. Sept. 10. Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. Email her at [email protected]. By Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune Posted Aug. 29, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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