Buckhorn History
Buckhorn Springs serves as a reminder of what is possible when a family commits to a particular place. In a modern world where jobs, houses, and lifestyles are often traded like interchangeable parts, Bruce and Leslie made a radical choice to purchase the run-down mineral springs resort in October of 1987. They chose to restore and preserve the historic structures, the habitat, and the stories of a single location. In doing so, their family embarked on what would soon become their life’s work: preserving a piece of Oregon’s history to share with their guests.
Once a healing destination for native tribes including the Rogue, Klamath, Shasta and Takilma tribes, and then for white settlers, Buckhorn had been neglected for years when the Sargent family moved in. Bruce remembers his first encounter with the resort—its dilapidated buildings and long-neglected landscape: “Ninety-nine out of one hundred people would have torn it all down. But I kind of like old things” said Bruce.
Once Bruce and Leslie realized that restoring the health spa was unrealistic, they decided to preserve the past rather than to recreate it. Where visitors took mineral baths in the 1930’s and received hydrotherapy from Dr. Wexler in the 1950’s, today’s guests will find historically restored accommodations, beautiful scenery, fresh air, and the babbling sound of Emigrant Creek. Many of the features that attracted visitors a hundred years ago continue to draw people to Buckhorn.
Indigenous People at Buckhorn
1800-1900
Long before the white man came to this country, so long ago, in fact, that Indian tradition does not fix the date, that wonderful collection of mineral springs that promises soon to make Ashland famous, was known and valued by the aborigines for their medicinal…
The Tolman Years
1890-1902
The curative powers of Buckhorn’s Carbon Dioxide springs known to the Native Americans did not go unnoticed by the white settlers, whose numbers increased sharply over the last half of the nineteenth century. Even though many whites may have scoffed…
Dry Ice from Carbon Dioxide
1930’s
Walking across a little log footbridge over Emigrant creek, pausing a moment to see the carbon dioxide gas bubbling incessantly from the tumbling stream, may in time -not too distant- become a mere memory to the hundreds who have visited Buckhorn lodge…
Whal Opens Resort
1936
Walking across a little log footbridge over Emigrant creek, pausing a moment to see the carbon dioxide gas bubbling incessantly from the tumbling stream, may in time -not too distant- become a mere memory to the hundreds who have visited Buckhorn lodge…