Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Cave Junction Cave Junction, OR

Cave Junction is a city in Josephine County, Oregon, and it is the only incorporated area in the Illinois Valley.

The city had a population of 2,071 at the 2020 census, up from 1,883 in 2010, and the 2020 census counted 878 households in Cave Junction.

Cave Junction was incorporated in 1948.

The city got its name from its location at the junction of Redwood Highway (U.S. Route 199) and Caves Highway (Oregon Route 46), and its motto is Gateway to the Oregon Caves.

Cave Junction was originally known as Cave City and was established in 1926 on land donated by Elwood Hussey, and the name Cave Junction was adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1936.

For thousands of years, the Takelma Indians inhabited the Illinois Valley, and the first gold in Oregon history was found in the valley, along with the largest gold nugget, weighing 17 pounds.

Elijah Davidson is credited with discovering the Oregon Caves in 1874, and President William Howard Taft established the 480-acre Oregon Caves National Monument on July 12, 1909.

Following World War II, timber became the main source of income for residents, and as timber income has since declined, the city has turned to tourism and branding itself as a haven for retirees.

The Biscuit Fire of 2002, which burned 499,965 acres in southern Oregon and northern California, destroyed four homes and nine outbuildings in the Cave Junction area.

Cave Junction lies about 30 miles southwest of Grants Pass and 53 miles northeast of Crescent City, California, in the Illinois Valley on the northwest slope of the Siskiyou Range.