Douglas County Historical Society

The Douglas County Historical Society is a non-profit organization and for the thirty two years of its existence has faithfully carried on its projects. It is funded by memberships, donations and its two publications which are accomplished by volunteers. The first publication undertaken by the Society has just completed twenty years. The Umpqua Tra... pper began in 1965 with George B. Abdill its editor. The printer has always been the Myrtle Creek Mail owned by Hal and Portia Schiltz who later sold to Robert and Sharon Scherer who still operate it today under the name of Umpqua Free Press. The Trapper was in early days delivered to the printer by train as the editor at that time was employed as locomotive engineer by the Southern Pacific Railroad. George served as editor until his death in 1982. Portia Schiltz and Doris Bacon served as co-editors a year. At present Doris Bacon and Ella Mae Young serve as co-editors. Our book "Historic Douglas County, Oregon" was published in 1982 after one and one-half years of hard work. It has been received well by the public and was supported by local residents and the merchants of the county who submitted stories and historical ads for the publication. The book has paid for itself, supported the matching grant fund helping us repair our house and future proceeds from it will start our perpetual fund account with interest only being used for maintenance of the Floed-Lane property. The society is grateful for all of the public support over the years and with growing interest towards historical preservation we are looking forward to many years to come. We thank you very much. 1999: Readers will note that our present building fund, to which the proceeds from this book are dedicated, was established to build an auxiliary structure on the Lane House property to provide storage for Douglas County Historical Society papers and artifacts. This story was taken from a 1985 issue of the UMPQUA TRAPPER. It was reprinted in 1999 in the Treasures from the Trapper Book. You can read more and ...Read More