Steamboat Stampmill, Brush Creek Canyon, Jacksonville, Jackson County, OR

Significance: The historic significance of the Steamboat Stampmill structure lies in: (1) its direct association with historic gold mining activities in southwestern Oregon in general and in the Steamboat Mountain mining district in particular (with the building's period of historic significance dating from the immediate pre-World War I years through the "Depression mining era" of the 1930s); and (2) its character as an example of a large, simply but ingeniously constructed building used to shelter gold ore-milling operations. The mill was built in a remote and rugged area of the Siskiyou Mountains, largely with native materials (e.g., peeled Douglas-fir poles for framework, hand-split sugar pine shakes for roofing), and probably by a crew of fewer than a half-dozen workers. The Steamboat Stampmill building exemplifies the utilitarian workmanship and "self-reliance" used by the typically small-scale lode mining operations of southwestern Oregon. It is one of the few stampmill structures that remains standing in this region.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N358
Survey number: HAER OR-57