Welcome To Lake County Oregon TTTP Genealogy and History

Fort Rock

Don Kelly, NW district, state and county administrator

Lake Abert Comunity Church Old Homestead Old Wagon

Warner Creek Prison This facility uses geothermal run the building, electric power generation and energy to heat the buildings and water. Heat is collected from deep water wells of water warmed by natural geothermal layers deep in the earth. The geothermally heated water goes through a heat exchange unit into the prison’s water-loop system. When the water cools down it is pumped back down the well to be reheated again. In case the geothermal source fails, there is a propane back up system in place capable of producing 100% of the heat needed to maintain the site. CRACK IN THE GROUND Crack In The Ground is a small canyon formed by volcanic action about 1100 years ago. There is a hiking trail the full two mile length of the rift. They say the temperature in the 70 foot deep canyon is twenty degrees cooler than topside, so your walk can be a pleasant one.

History Lake County was created from Jackson and Wasco Counties on October 24, 1874. It then included the present Klamath County and all of the present Lake County except Warner Valley. In 1882, land was assigned to create Klamath County, and in 1885 the Warner area from Grant County was added. Linkville, now Klamath Falls, was the first county seat Lake County is home to several frontier towns.There are many large cattle ranches and timber stands in the high desert area, as well as lakes and other geological features. Modern The first European's known to have visited this area before 1800 were trappers. Peter Skene Ogden led Hudson Bay Company trappers at Goose Lake in 1827. In 1832, the Hudson Bay trappers under John Work were in the Goose Lake Valley and mentioned Hunter's Hot Springs. Work visited Warner Lakes, Lake Abert, and camped at Crooked Creek in the 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 including Warner Lakes and other natural features using information from Hudson Bay trappers. In 1843, John C. Fremont led a party into the area which named Christmas (Hart) Lake. Pre-Columbian Early settlers do not speak to any Indian Tribes in this area, occasional contacts with hunting partys being the exception. Indians once lived here as evidenced by discoveries of ancient caches of arrow heads around the lake. Pre-Clovis era coprolites found in the Paisley Caves in northern Lake County in 2007 have been radiocarbon dated to 14,300 years ago. DNA tests at burial sites bears certain genetic markers found only in Native Americans. In 1938 Luther Cressman found artifacts in caves near Fort Rock, including basketry, stone tools, and sandals woven of sagebrush bark, which were dated 10,000 years old. Northern Lake County has geological sites including the Fort Rock, a crater marked by wave activity in what was once an ice age lake bed. It's also a site where camel bones were found, and the world's oldest shoes were found here in in 1938. Scientists had formerly believed that humans came to the west 4,000 years ago. However, as a footnote, I believe the far north-west was the first area where Indians lived, and from there they spread out to the whole of north and South Ameica. Conclusion:   We can now hike throughout Lake County and find it still the way it was when Fremont visited a 150 years ago. NOTES: Edited for content by Don Kelly Indian Wars