Phoenix

History

The area was settled by brothers Hiram and Samuel Colver. Samuel Colver laid out the town in 1854. Early residents included Milton Lindley, who operated a sawmill that provided timbers in 1855, for a blockhouse as well as a flouring mill owned by Sylvester M. Wait. For a time, the settlement was known locally as Gasburg after a talkative employee in the kitchen serving the mill hands. Wait, who was an agent for the Phoenix Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, assigned the official name, Phoenix, to the community and, in 1857, to its post office. Waitsburg, Washington, was later named after Wait. On September 8, 2020, much of Phoenix, along with neighboring Talent and parts of Medford and Ashland, were destroyed by the Almeda Drive Fire. On September 11, 2020, authorities said they were preparing for a mass fatality incident. On September 11, it was reported that 600 homes and 100 commercial buildings were destroyed by the Almeda Drive Fire, but on September 18, that number was updated to 2,800. Officials stated that the Almeda Drive Fire was human-caused. A separate criminal investigation into the origin point of the Almeda Drive Fire in Ashland was ongoing as of September 2020.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all land. The city is south of Medford and north of Talent and Ashland along Interstate 5 and Oregon Route 99. This is toward the southern end of the Rogue River Valley, near the Siskiyou Mountains and the border with California. Coleman Creek, a tributary of Bear Creek, joins the larger stream at Phoenix. This region experiences hot and dry summers, and cool and wet winters. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Phoenix has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated Csa on climate maps. Phoenix's record-high temperature is on June 27, 2021, and the record-low temperature is on December 9, 1972.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• South Medford High School
  High · Medford · 1,870 students · 24.6:1 ratio
• North Medford High School
  High · Medford · 1,701 students · 22.7:1 ratio
• Logos Charter School
  Other · Medford · 1,146 students · 20.1:1 ratio
• Hedrick Middle School
  Middle · Medford · 996 students · 21.7:1 ratio
• Ashland High School
  High · Ashland · 924 students · 20.1:1 ratio
• McLoughlin Middle School
  Middle · Medford · 915 students · 19.9:1 ratio
• Scenic Middle School
  Middle · Central Point · 844 students · 30.1:1 ratio
• Phoenix High School
  High · Phoenix · 700 students · 20.6:1 ratio