Grants Pass, OR

Grants Pass is the Josephine County seat on the Rogue River, where U.S. Route 199 joins Interstate 5 northwest of Medford. Its population was 39,194 in 2020. Hudson’s Bay Company hunters and trappers followed the Siskiyou Trail through the site beginning in the 1820s; settlers on the Applegate Trail passed through in the late 1840s on their way to the Willamette Valley. The city says its name honors Ulysses S. Grant’s success in the Vicksburg Campaign. Lumber remained the leading local employer until the early 1970s, before regional harvesting and processing declined and service industries expanded. Boatnik brings hydroplane racing and a carnival to Riverside Park each Memorial Day weekend. On the outskirts, the Cathedral Hills Trail System contains endangered plants, Oregon’s largest whiteleaf manzanita, and its tallest knobcone pine.