[1] Located along the Rogue River about 8 miles (13 km) upriver from Agness, the area was home to Takelma Indians, then to white and Karok settlers, before becoming part of a designated wilderness.

These pioneers, some of whom were former gold miners married to Karok Indian women from the Klamath River basin, established gardens and orchards, kept horses, cows, and other livestock, and received occasional shipments of goods sent by pack mule over the mountains.

In 1883, one of them, Elijah H. Price, proposed a permanent mail route by boat up the Rogue River from Ellensburg (later renamed Gold Beach) to Big Bend,[7] about 35 miles (56 km) upstream.

Price's job, for which he received no pay during the trial year, included running the post office and making sure that the mail boat made one round-trip a week.

[10] In 1897, the department established a post office near the confluence of the Rogue and the Illinois rivers, 8 miles (13 km) downriver from Illahe, at what became Agness.