Roxy Ann Peak

Roxy Ann Peak

Roxy Ann Peak also known as Roxy Ann Butte is a 3,576-foot-tall mountain in the Western Cascade Range at the eastern edge of Medford, Oregon. The peak was named in August 1853 by emigrants arriving from Missouri via the Oregon Trail. It is part of the old and deeply eroded Western Cascades, along with nearby Pilot Rock, Grizzly Peak, and Baldy.

About Roxy Ann Peak in brief

Summary Roxy Ann PeakRoxy Ann Peak also known as Roxy Ann Butte is a 3,576-foot-tall mountain in the Western Cascade Range at the eastern edge of Medford, Oregon. The mountain is Medford’s most important viewshed, open space reserve, and recreational resource. The area was originally inhabited beginning 8,000 to 10,000 years ago by ancestral Native Americans. The Latgawa Native American tribe was present in the early 1850s when the sudden influx of non-indigenous settlers resulted in the Rogue River Wars. The peak was named in August 1853 by emigrants arriving from Missouri via the Oregon Trail. It is part of the old and deeply eroded Western Cascades, along with nearby Pilot Rock, Grizzly Peak, and Baldy. The oldest layer, the 35 to 50-million-year-old Payne Cliffs Formation, forms the base of the peak and consists of sedimentary sandstone, shale, and conglomerates. Most of the rest of the mountain is made up of volcanic basalt, breccias, and agglomerates, known as the Roxy Formation. At the summit, younger basalt dikes and intrusions K–Ar dated to 30. 82 ± 2 million years ago form a relatively erosion-resistant cap, likely contributing to the peak’s isolation and familiar conical shape. The unique rounded top, location, and height of thepeak create a landmark distinguishable from as far away as Shady Cove, 15.

5 miles to the north, and the Siskiyou Summit, 23. 5 million years to the south. The first inhabitants were semi-nomadic, most likely off edible bulbs such as mastodons and giant bison. Within the last millennium, the region became home to the Lat gawa tribe, who called the peak Al-wiya. They probably used the mountain for gathering acorns and black-tailed deer, which are still abundant there. The last European Americans to visit the area were a group of fur trappers led by Peter Skene Ogden who traveled through the Rogue Valley on February 14, 1827. A few decades later, the first non-Indigenous settlers arrived a few miles north of the Siletzile Valley. The group later moved north hundreds of miles to Silezile, where they lived for a few decades before moving on to the northern tip of the Cascade Range in the 1930s and 1940s. The region is now largely undeveloped, with some quickly expanding single-family residential subdivisions in the southern foothills. The highest point is 2,200 feet above Medford and is visible from most of theRogue Valley.