Riddle, OR

Riddle is a Douglas County city where Cow Creek runs past town before joining the South Umpqua River. John Bouseman Riddle settled here in 1851, and the railroad gave the place a station first called Riddlesburg, then Riddles, then Riddle by 1889. Nickel mining later became the town’s signature industry; the nearby deposits were worked for decades before the mine closed in 1987. Riddle is southern Oregon in creek-and-railroad form, with a mining chapter that still sets it apart.