Native American artifacts found in the Fort Rock area of North Lake County have been dated to 9,000 years ago. White traders, explorers and military expeditions arrived in the 1800s. Peter Skene Ogden led Hudson’s Bay Company trappers at Goose Lake in 1827, in 1832 the Hudson Bay trappers under John Work were in Surprise Valley area and mentioned Hunter’s Hot Springs. Work visited Warner Lakes, Abert Lake, camped at Crooked Creek in Chandler Park area where they ate wild plums, which still grow in the area. They also reported being attacked by Indians. In 1838 Colonel J. J. Abert, U.S. engineer, prepared a map showing Warner Lakes and other natural features using information from Hudson Bay trappers and in 1843 a John C. Fremont party named Christmas (Hart) Lake.

Lake County was once home to Basque and Irish sheepherders. Cattle ranchers later feuded and beat out the wandering sheepherders. Lake County grew with the arrival of homesteaders, but the dry climate made for tough going.

Lake County was created from Jackson and Wasco Counties on October 24, 1874 by the State Legislature. It then included the present Klamath County and all of the present Lake County except Warner Valley. In 1882 land was removed to create Klamath County, and in 1885 the Warner area from Grant County was added. Linkville, now Klamath Falls, was the first county seat.

M. Bullard gave 20 acres as the Lakeview townsite. By the 1875 election a town had been started there and an election moved the county seat to Lakeview. Because of poor transportation connections with the rest of Oregon, the early economic orientation of Lake County was toward California. As an indicator of that connection, both the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco Examiner arrived in Lakeview daily, often before the The Oregonian. During the 1840s and 1850s the county was part of the military courier route between The Dalles on the Columbia River and the Presidio in San Francisco.

The county acquired a railroad connection in the 1890s. That railroad spur, the Nevada-California-Oregon Railway line running from Lakeview toReno, Nevada, emphasized the isolation of the county from the rest of Oregon. A devastating fire in 1900 destroyed much of Lakeview, including 75 businesses.

Pictured below is what’s thought to be the original homestead of the Crump Ranch.  This house dates back a 100 years and is located on on the shores of Crump Lake.