Jackson House State Park Heritage Site History
Jackson House State Park Heritage Site is a 1.4-acre day-use park at Jackson Prairie. The park is the setting of a homestead cabin built by John R. Jackson, one of the first Euro-Americans to settle north of the Columbia River and a significant figure in early Washington territorial history.
Indigenous Lands
The park lies within the traditional territories of Coast Salish Indigenous people whose present-day descendants include members of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation. For thousands of years, they have cared for the unique landscape of the prairies found south of Puget Sound, habitats for a diverse community of life that forms the basis of their cultures. The prairies are naturally treeless landscapes, sustained by thousands of years of stewardship by local tribes, who maintained them with periodic burning and plant harvests.
Local tribes refused to accept the conditions proposed by Washington Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens at the Chehalis River Treaty Council in February 1855. Consequently, tribal members continued to live and harvest natural resources in their usual and accustomed places even as settlers began to develop lands on their territory, unlike the situation in other parts of Washington Territory, where tribes ceded lands to the US federal government with ratified treaties. Subsequently, title to the land was relinquished to the US federal government and the Chehalis Reservation was established by executive order of Secretary of the Interior J. P. Usher on July 8, 1864. The Cowlitz Indian Tribe received federal recognition in 2000.
John and Matilda
John R. Jackson (1804-1873) was part of a wave of westward migration that poured into the Indigenous nations of the Pacific Northwest after Great Britain and the United States signed the Treaty of Joint Occupation in 1818. Born in Staindrop, England in 1804, Jackson immigrated to New York in 1823 or 1833 (accounts vary) and became an American citizen in 1835. He moved first to Missouri and then to the Oregon Territory in 1844. From Oregon City, Jackson ventured north and began the work of establishing his homestead in April 1845 in the vicinity of the prairies.
On a trip to Oregon City in the spring of 1848, Jackson met Matilda Nettle Glover Coontz (1811-1901). Matilda had been recently widowed when her husband drowned crossing the Snake River as they journeyed across the Oregon Trail. Jackson and Matilda married on May 4, 1848, and moved to Jackson’s homestead with Matilda’s four sons.
In 1850, Jackson built a small cabin for his new family. The Highlands, as John called his farm, soon became a social and civic hub. Its location midway along the Cowlitz Trail—an important north-south route between Oregon City (then the capital of the Oregon Territory) and Puget Sound first established by Indigenous people—made the home an ideal place to stop and rest, and to conduct business. Also in 1850, the U.S. Congress authorized the donation of public lands in the Oregon Territory to settlers after they had lived on the land for four years. A single male who had arrived before December 1850 could be granted 320 acres; if the settler was married, his wife could also receive 320 acres in her name.
As traffic through the area increased and the size of their family grew, the Jacksons added several additions and outbuildings to their home. The house was used as a post office, grocery store, hotel, tavern and even a US District Court. Visitors included Ulysses S. Grant and Isaac Stevens, the first territorial governor of Washington. John became politically active as the population of the area increased. He served as sheriff, assessor, tax collector, territorial representative, and justice of the peace. It was at Jackson’s home that settlers met in 1852 to propose the formation of a new territory north of the Columbia River that eventually became Washington State.
John and Matilda Jackson claimed 640 acres under terms of the Donation Land Claims Act on November 8, 1853. As stipulated in the law, the north half was granted to John while the south half was granted to Matilda. Jackson died in 1873. In 1882, Matilda moved into a new home on the property, and the cabin and its attachments were abandoned.
Restoration and Preservation as a Park
The Jackson House fell into disrepair for several decades until Anna Koontz (the Koontz surname was spelled beginning with a “C” or “K” by different family members), a granddaughter of John and Matilda, began an effort to preserve it. Koontz suggested a project to restore the home to the St. Helens Club of Chehalis, a women’s literary and civic group, of which she was a member. In 1914, the club formed a committee to raise the $500 deemed necessary to restore the structure. August Donahoe, who had purchased the portion of Jackson’s homestead containing the cabin agreed to donate a small parcel containing the structure to the state for use as a park. Work began on June 16, 1915, and was completed by October 4. The construction was performed by local tradesmen. Utilizing what materials could be salvaged, the building was reconstructed to mimic the appearance of the original 1850 cabin. The project was the first known restoration of an historic structure in Washington.
On November 22, 1915, in the first meeting of the Washington State Board of Park Commissioners, the Jackson House became one of the first two properties accepted as state parks. The efforts of the St. Helens Club were celebrated in a ceremony in 1922 when the Washington State Historical Society unveiled the decorative cobblestone wall that adorns the entrance to the cabin. Additional restoration work was performed in 1934 by Civilian Conservation Corps members who were stationed at nearby Lewis and Clark State Park. The Jackson House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
The wear and tear of many years led the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission to undertake a restoration of the reconstructed cabin in 2017, maintaining details of the site by matching the original colors and materials, while improving accessibility and preservation of this link to Washington’s history.
Sharing the histories of Washington’s state parks is an ongoing project. Learn more here.