It’s “Emigrant” lake. People around here flip out over that. And yes, the crappie there are great. Good bass, too, if you know the right spots (which I don’t, but still…)
I live in Ashland, actually. It’s a very nice little town, although the best way I’ve heard it described is “an island of six square miles in the sea of reality”. This is a heavily liberal town; between OSF, because theatre people are really liberal, Southern Oregon University, because college students are liberal, and the large hippie population, who I don’t need to tell you are liberal. That’s offset by relatively wealthy, elderly Californians who retire here. A few people in town are annoyed by the Californians who move here in droves, but it’s not like you’ll be ostracized for it, just ridiculed briefly and then forgotten, because almost no one here was born here, and we’re all immigrants at some level. I’ve lived here only seven years myself.
The weather is beautiful and dry as a bone during the summer; in the last few years the summer temperature hovers between 80 and 100 in the summer, which isn’t that bad with effectively 0 humidity. Most summers, we get maybe three rain showers total between from June through September. Fall is similarly clear but much cooler. Winter is rainy, mildly cold, and grey and overcast for months. Spring is warmer and rainier.
You’re familiar with OSF, but there’s even more in the way of theatre in town- the Oregon Caberet, right down the street from OSF, does wonderful little musical comedies, usually with a cast of six or fewer. SOU has the best theatre department in Oregon, and even the local high school has first-class theatre facility, with top-level acting classes taught by OSF actors, and most directors, choreographers, lighting, set, and costume designers from the Festival.
Lithia Park is, as mentioned, beautiful, as long as you don’t mind the hippies smoking and the local goth crowd sword fighting in a couple of the areas. They’re all friendly, but some tourists get offended just that these people exist. Ashland had a bit of a scandal a couple years back, when the city finally passed a ban of nudity in public and streakers protested everywhere. It was hilarious, in my mind, but a small minority of the town (on both sides of the issue) screamed for months on end about it.
On the downside, real estate is insanely expensive- very few houses within city limits sell for less than $400,000, it seems, and it’s not uncommon for houses to sell for well over $1,000,000. You might be able to get a decent place for a reasonable price in Pheonix or Talent, which are about five minutes drive outside city limits. Phantom Dennis is correct that diversity is minimal, although I’d disagree with the “college student” part of his statement. It’s true, though, that nearly everyone is white and upper middle class, though this is one place where you find few extreme right-wing Christians. Racial and cultural diversity is welcomed, it just can’t afford to live here.
