Rice Hill is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Douglas County,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, United States. It is located about north of

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

Interstate 5 Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels thro ...

. Rice Hill has complete tourist facilities, including a

truck stop A truck stop (known as a service station in the United Kingdom, a travel center by major chains in the United States and a roadhouse in rural Australia) is a commercial facility which provides refueling, rest (parking), and often ready-made f ...

, motels, and restaurants. It has long been a popular spot to stop for ice cream.

History

Rice Hill was named either for Isadore F. Rice, who settled in the area in the 1850s, or for William S. Rice, who had a Donation Land Claim at the north end of Rice Valley at about the same time. Rice Hill post office was established in 1892, and soon renamed Ricehill. The office closed in 1908. The steep grade of Rice Hill was an obstacle for

pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a person who is among the first at something that is new to a community. A pioneer as a settler is among the first settling at a place that is new to the settler community. A historic example are American pioneers, perso ...

travelers and it also created problems for the construction of the railroad.

Geography

Rice Hill is a summit that divides the watersheds of Elk Creek and the

Umpqua River The Umpqua River ( ) on the Pacific coast of Oregon in the United States is approximately long. One of the principal rivers of the Oregon Coast and known for bass and shad, the river drains an expansive network of valleys in the mountains west ...

. A two-mile long

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

stretches south from the community of Rice Hill.

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...

(today

Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad The Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad is a Class II railroad operating between Northern California and Eugene, Oregon, United States. It was previously a mainline owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) between Eugene and Weed, California ...

) has a station on its Siskiyou Line at the summit named Rice Hill. The community has an elevation of . It rises in .

References

External links

Images of Rice Hill
from Flickr Unincorporated communities in Douglas County, Oregon 1892 establishments in Oregon Populated places established in 1892 Unincorporated communities in Oregon {{DouglasCountyOR-geo-stub