Kernan Turner
As It Was Editor & CoordinatorKernan Turner is the Southern Oregon Historical Society’s volunteer editor and coordinator of the As It Was series broadcast daily by Jefferson Public Radio. A University of Oregon journalism graduate, Turner was a reporter for the Coos Bay World and managing editor of the Democrat-Herald in Albany before joining the Associated Press in Portland in 1967. Turner spent 35 years with the AP. His assignments included the World Desk in New York City and 27 years as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief, living and working in Mexico and Central America, South America, the Caribbean and the Iberian Peninsula. His final assignment was as chief of Iberian Services in Madrid, Spain. He retired in Ashland, his birthplace, in 2002, with his wife, Betzabé “Mina” Turner, an Oregon certified court interpreter. He and his wife are active boosters of Ashland’s Sister City connection with Guanajuato, Mexico.
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Zany Ganung is a legendary figure of Jacksonville, Ore., best known for chopping down a Confederate flag raised near her home during the run-up to the…
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A headline in the Aug. 31, 2019, edition of the Medford, Ore., Mail Tribune declared, “Jackson County dodges lightning strikes.” An adjacent headline…
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An article published 100 years ago in the Medford Mail-Tribune predicted motor trucks would replace railroads just as the automobile had pushed aside…
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Children returning to Southern Oregon rural schools a century ago faced a first week of clean-up duties uncomfortably familiar to their home chores.The…
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A series of early fires plagued the Southern Oregon hamlet of Linkville, Ore., greatly retarding its growth for at least 20 years.George Nurse founded the…
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Known as the “last of the Cattle Kings,” German immigrant Henry Miller owned more than 1.25 million acres of land. He once said he owned half of…
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A Medford publication reports that international cuisine has “spiced up” dining in the Rogue Valley over the last 34 years, partially due to food trucks…
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The owners of the first private airplane in Medford, Ore., named it the Mayfly, as in the expression, “it may fly.” It became better known as “Old Sturdy”…
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For many years, the prosperity of Ashland, Ore., like other Rogue Valley communities, depended on a booming timber industry for prosperity. Pioneer Abel…
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The combination of heavy snow in the mountains followed by warm rains sporadically brings serious flooding to Southern Oregon and Northern California…
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The Treaty of April 12, 1854, between the U.S. Government and the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians ceded more than 800 square miles of…
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Stagecoach robberies plagued travel in Southern Oregon and Northern California in the late 1800s.It has been estimated that the legendary poet-bandit…