[5] Modoc, Shasta, Takelma, Latgawa, and Umpqua Indian tribes are all native to the region of present Jackson County.

It included lands which now lie in Coos, Curry, Josephine, Klamath and Lake Counties.

Gold discoveries in the Illinois River valley and the Rogue River valley near Jacksonville in 1852, and the completion of a wagon road connecting the county with California to the south and Douglas County to the north led to an influx of non-native settlers.

Conflict between the miners and Native Americans led to war in 1853, which continued intermittently until the final defeat of the last band under chiefs John and George by a combined force of regular army and civilians May 29, 1856, at Big Bend on the Rogue River.

Over the following months, other groups were forced to leave until by May 1857 almost all of the Shasta, Takelma, and Latgawas tribes had been relocated to the Siletz Reservation, where they remained.

However, Jacksonville declined due to diminishing returns in the local goldfields and the construction in the 1880s of the Oregon and California Railroad.

Medford's prospects improved because of the location of the railroad and the accompanying commerce and development as Jacksonville continued its steady decline.

On May 15, 2007, residents voted not to reopen the county's 15 libraries, which had been closed since April 6 due to a shortage of funds.

Located entirely within Jackson County is Bear Creek and its watershed, a tributary of the Rogue River.

[11] The population centers of Medford, Ashland, Phoenix, Talent, and Central Point are located along the stream.

It connects with the Rogue River near the Upper and Lower Table Rock lava formations.

[21] As is typical of southwestern Oregon, Jackson County leans towards the Republican nominee in presidential elections, although the presence of a substantial student body at Ashland means Democrats get a larger proportion of the vote in statewide elections than in any other county south of the Willamette Valley.

In recent elections, however, the Republican lean in Jackson County has presented some signs of waning.

[27] What is believed to be the world's only Bigfoot trap is located in the Siskiyou National Forest in the southern part of the county.

The trap was originally built in 1974 by the North American Wildlife Research Team (NAWRT), a now-defunct organization based in Eugene, Oregon to capture the legendary hominid Bigfoot (or Sasquatch) that is said to inhabit the forests of the Pacific Northwest.

The Oregon Vortex is a roadside attraction that opened to tourists in 1930, located on Sardine Creek in Gold Hill.

It consists of a number of interesting effects, which are gravity hill optical illusions, but which the attraction's proprietors propose are the result of paranormal properties of the area.