Josephine County Historical Society's "Passport To History" - Lake Selmac - Selma, Oregon

Josephine County Historical Society's "Passport To History" - Lake Selmac - Selma, Oregon

We continue on our Josephine County Historical Society's "Passport To History" program by a visit to Lake Selmac. It sits in the southern part of Oregon in the breathtakingly beautiful Illinois Valley.

Lake Selmac boasts a pristine lake where record bass have been caught, it is also home for trout, crappie, catfish, bluegill and perch.

Wild turkeys shuffle through the Lake Selmac fringes

and swans, ducks and geese are always present

with an abundant population of deer. Eagles and osprey are common on Lake Selmac as well.

Lake Selmac is steeped in history, from gold mining, Indian raids, and in the middle of some of the most beautiful country ever seen.

A few miles from Lake Selmac is a vast wilderness area (The Kalmiopsis), that stretches to the majestic Pacific Ocean beaches.

The old pack trail that led from Crescent City to the gold fields of Oregon runs right through the Lake Selmac area. Two bankrobbers fled through here in the late 1800's and were caught and hanged a few miles from Lake Selmac. The gold was never recovered.

The hills around Lake Selmac have many such exciting tales to tell of gold beyond one's imagination. When you come to Lake Selmac, you can hunt, fish, hike, bike, pan for gold and just do anything that you can imagine.

There are places in this area around Lake Selmac where man has never touched.