[8] Early Hudson's Bay Company hunters and trappers, following the Siskiyou Trail, passed through the site beginning in the 1820s.

In the late 1840s, settlers (mostly American) following the Applegate Trail began traveling through the area on their way to the Willamette Valley.

[12] Due to labor shortages and low acreage planted in sugar beets, the processing machinery was moved to Toppenish, Washington, in 1918 or 1919.

[17] Grants Pass has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa), and is in USDA plant hardiness zone 8b.

[18] Summer days are sunny, dry and hot, with dramatic cooling at night; the average August high temperature is 90.6 °F (32.6 °C) and the low is 54.9 °F (12.7 °C).

Winters are cool and fairly rainy, with only occasional snow; the average January high temperature is 47.6 °F (8.7 °C) and the low is 35.3 °F (1.8 °C).

Grants Pass receives roughly 31 inches (790 mm) precipitation per year, with three-quarters of it occurring between November 1 and March 31.

The mild winters and dry summers support a native vegetation structure quite different from the rest of Oregon, dominated by madrone, deciduous and evergreen oak, manzanita, pine, bush chinquapin, and other species that are far less abundant further north.

At that point the entire region started to see a steady decline in all lumber harvesting, production, and processing.

Since then there has been a shift to a large service industry sector covering areas of outdoors/sports/recreation and health care infrastructure.

Boatnik, a hydroplane boat race and carnival event, is held every Memorial Day weekend in Riverside Park.

[32] The historic Rogue Theatre downtown has been transformed into a performing arts venue that hosts mostly local acts.

On the first Friday of every month, many of the city's downtown stores hold art shows and promotional events.

[35] The Grants Pass post office contains two tempera murals done through the U.S. Treasury Department Section on Fine Arts (often mistakenly referred to as the "WPA"), both painted in 1938.

There are ten government-sponsored New Deal era murals in Oregon; Grants Pass is the only post office that contains two.

The Redwood Empire sign at the beginning of the bridge has also been a landmark for many years, and it was redone in 2021 due to a car crash.

[39][40] In addition, the BLM run Cathedral Hills recreation area on the outskirts of Grants Pass is home to several endangered species of plants, the largest whiteleaf manzanita in the state as well the tallest knobcone pine.

The other paper of record in Josephine County is the Illinois Valley News in Cave Junction established in 1937.