$340 million ticket sold in Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, Ore. – Someone in this Gold Rush town struck it rich with a $340 million Powerball ticket.

The winner of the second-largest U.S. lottery jackpot bought the lucky ticket either at Ray’s Food Place or J’Ville Tavern, the town’s only lottery-ticket sellers. A runner-up ticket worth about $850,000 also was sold in Jacksonville.

“We used to have gold. Now we have gold again,” said J’Ville Tavern owner Andy Gough, who was waiting to find out if she and her husband would be winners, too. The seller of the winning ticket receives $100,000.

As of Thursday afternoon, no one had come forward to claim the jackpot.

The winning numbers drawn Wednesday evening were 7, 21, 43, 44, 49 and 29. The winner can take the money in an after-tax lump sum of $110 million, or receive 30 annual installments of about $7.6 million.

Jacksonville was a rough-and-tumble boomtown after a Gold Rush in the 1850s. The town began to fade as the richer ore dwindled, and Jacksonville became something of a ghost town.

It has revived in recent years thanks in part to its proximity to Medford, and is home to the summer Britt Music Festival. The town is on the National Register of Historic Places and has kept much of its Western flavor.