Historic Oregon Mailboat Runs

Here's an interesting factoid. There are only two rural mailboat routes operating in the United States--and they are both in Oregon. The photo above was taken of one of these historic mailboat runs on the Rogue River circa 1920 - 1930.

In 1897, a post office was established in the mining town of Agness, thirty-two miles from the mouth of the Rogue River in Curry County. Mailboats delivered mail and supplies to the outpost from the port town of Gold Beach. The town's first postmaster, Amaziah Aubery, named the town for his daughter. According to Oregon Geographic Names, by Lewis A. and Lewis L. McArthur (OHS Press), the unusual spelling may have been the result of an error.

Due to the mountainous and isolated terrain of southern Oregon, early settlers used boats on the Rogue River to transport themselves and goods from the ocean port at Gold Beach to interior settlements. Gold miner and farmer Elijah Huitt Price established the first mailboat service on the river in 1895 to deliver mail to about a dozen households. Mailboat operators used an eighteen-foot, double-ended rowboat, made by local resident Henry Moore, on weekly trips to pick up and deliver mail between Illahe, about forty miles from the mouth of the Rogue River, and Gold Beach. River travelers used poles to move the boats through shallow areas and pulled their boats by rope over the more treacherous rapids.

Today, the mail is still delivered to Agness by jet boats. When the Rogue River Mail Boat Company takes tourists on the river it delivers the mail from Gold Beach to Agness and back, six days a week in the summer and three days a week in the winter.