JOSEPHINE COUNTY, ORE. — Even in the most recent years, Josephine County has been described as the wild west. Butout of all the explorers that passed through the region, how did one teenager, who was only in Josephine County for about a year, get a county named after her
The year was 1851, the heart of the Gold Rush. Like so many others, the Rollins family, including 17 or 18 year old Virginia, made their way to California.
According to some recordsshe was the first white woman in the area.
The Rollins and their group stopped in what is now the Illinois Valley. Miners flooded the area searching for gold.
Rollins, was in a sense the odd man out.
“She lost her mother. And her father was her only living parent, and she just came with him and did all the thing the boys, and all the sons of the other miners would do,” said Joan Momsen, President of the Josephine County Historical Society.
Momsen says Rollins made quiet the impression.Not only did she mine alongside the men, but she also did work woman were typically known to do.
“There was one story that she baked really good pies, and the miners loved that because they’d get a homemade pie out in the mining fields.” Momsen explained.
To showtheirappreciation, the men named the creek they were mining in after her, using her middle name of Josephine.
It was the Josephine Creek that ultimately gave the county it’s name.
The name was suggested by a group of men who helped protect Rollins after her party was attacked by Indians.
Rollin’s and her family made it to Yreka safely after the attack.
She continued south to Sonoma County where she spent the rest of her life.
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