William Chauncey Winston (1838-1926), a native of New York, acquired his property on the South Umpqua River in 1871. Here he ran the major ferry in the district and he was among those who petitioned for construction of a bridge at the ferry crossing site. The bridge was completed and opened for traffic in 1887.

The Winstons, along with the Agees Dillard, set out the first prune trees in the county in the late 1870s.

By 1910, prunes were the county's principal fruit crop. While farmers raised prunes commercially in every county west of the Cascades, Douglas County growers produced fully twenty percent of the state's entire prune market.

Excerpted from the NRHP nomination.