Between 1846 and 1856 the Applegate Trail through Josephine County became a major travel corridor for settles, miners, freighters and those trekking between Oregon and California. Where the well-traveled route crossed the valley of Wolf Creek, a settlement gathered. By 1855, Six Bit House, the first hotel on the outskirts of this community, catered to the weary, hungry and thirsty. The proprietors offered dinner, or a bed, or breakfast for "two bits" or 25¢ each — all there for "six bits" or 75¢.
Long lines of mules, often driven by Mexican vaqueros, hauled freight over the hills of southern Oregon to the mining camps. In 1855 James Twogood and McDonough Harkness erected Leland Creek House at Grave Creek. "The table will always be furnished with the best the country affords, and the bar with the choicest liquors and cigars," they advertised. Henry Smith established a hostel at Wolf Creek in 1870 variously known as Six Bit House #2 or Wolf Creek House. In 1883, Smith constructed the Wolf Creek Tavern to serve local stage travelers and railroad passengers.
Wolf Creek Tavern is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It is among the best preserved and oldest active travelers' inns in Oregon. The Pacific Highway under construction locally in 1914 and hard-surfaced in 1923, was located through the same
nearby mountain pass traversed by earlier roads. Because of the highway and the interstate freeway which followed in the 1950s, Wolf Creek Tavern has remained in service virtually without interruption since its construction in 1883. The Inn was acquired by the State of Oregon in 1975 and restored to its original condition.
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