1900 – Oregon’s population is 413,536. Klamath County’s population is 3,970. There are about 500 farms in Klamath County.
1900 – February 20-27, a railroad survey finds no objections to a railroad right-of-way between Klamath Falls and Keno.
1900 – April 16 -23, a meteor impacted 15 miles from Klamath Falls. It lit up the southwest sky.
1900 – June, first ten-foot logging wheels in Oregon built for Thomas McCormack of Keno by Charles Woodard.
1900 – Mr. Duff’s steamboat excursion and basket picnic to Pelican Bay was scheduled for May, with the Klamath Falls brass band providing music.
1900 – Alexander Martin, his son A. Martin Jr. and E.R. Reames organized the Klamath County Bank which Alexander Martin was president.
1900 – First city fire bell in Klamath Falls.
1900 – Captain Oliver Applegate is appointed Superintendent of the Klamath reservation, succeeding Major Emory, who is promoted to Inspector.
1900 – Mrs. Dan Griffith starts a summer resort, The Pioneer Guest House, on Odessa Creek.
1900’s – Jesse Kirk was one of the first delegates to Washington D.C. before the 1900’s and a representative for the Klamath Reservation several years.
1900 – October 8, work on enlarging and extending an irrigation ditch from Upper Klamath Lake to run eastward several miles. The ditch is owned by Henry Ankeny and J.T. Henley. Construction of the ditch is encouraged by the certainty of the O.M Railroad.
1900 – October 15, E.E. Mead, who recently arrived from Crook County, buys Buck Island for horticulture and fruit raising.
1900 – October 15, J.L. Loosely and E. Harshberger tend, (intend?) to a beaver ranch at the Wood River.
1901 – Fred Moore organizes Moore’s Comedians, the first local drama company.
1901 – June, Doctors Hargus and Straw bring the first x-ray machine to Klamath Falls.
1901 – Robert Spink temorarily left klamath Agency to open a new store in Yainax, the sub-agency 40 miles away on the Reservation. The building used as the old jail and he hired Frank Applegate as clerk and manager.
1901 – Mrs. Addie Clark wed H.J. O’Brien in Klamath County.
1901 – Medford, Jackson County, Oregon, is incorporated.
1902 – Congress passes the US Bureau of Reclamation, established under Department of Interior, so that irrigation projects can “reclaim” arid lands for human use. This was called “homemaking.” “Water temporarily conservation” is defined as not allowing a drop of water to run, unused by humans, to the ocean. Over the next fifty years, dam building will fuel the economies and imaginations of Americans. These sublime marvels of human engineering symbolized American mastery over nature and manifest dominian over the West, and the world.
1902 – J.H. Hessig extends a telephone line to Topsy Grade from Picard, California.
1902 – Caleb T. Oliver organized the first county fair and races.
1902 – Marion Wampler and family arrive in Klamath Falls.
1902 – April 16, Odessa post office opens.
1902 – April 22, Crater Lake becomes a National Park. William F. Arant is the first superintendent.
1902 – A piano is moved from Ashland to Pelican Bay Resort.
1902 – August 2, Midway Telephone and Telegraph Company reaches Klamath Falls from Ashland.
1902 – George Baldwin is elected County Judge.
1902 – Earl Moore moved from Rogue River to Sprague.
1902 – Roy Hamacker bought the Weekly Express.
1902 – Klamath County’s first telephone line.
1902 – George Thompson elected County Judge.
1902 – Yainax Agency consisted of 25 dwellings: tepes, shacks and sod huts outside the Agency buildings’ perimeter.
1902 – Dr. Stacy Hemenway was resident physician at Klamath Reservation office at Klamath agency, making his rounds in horse and buggy. He was the last Doctor to serve the Yainax Agency.
1902 – October 13, Klamathon, Pokegama, was destroyed by fire including the sawmill, both box factories, eight million feet of Lumber and thirty homes.
1902 – The Woman’s library Club is formed and leads to the first free Klamath Falls library.
1903 – Klamath Lake Navigation Company forms.
1903 – January 8, a successful masquerade ball is held at the Huston Opera House.
1903 – March, first appropriation for local firemen’s uniforms.
1905 – March 29, Maude Baldwin’s photographic studio opens.
1903 – The town of Fort Klamath, platted by William T. Shrive, consists of a 5-6 bed hotel, livery stable, 2 general stores and a few shacks.
1903 – Merrill, Oregon was incorporated into Klamath County in 1903. A successful water well was drilled in 1905.
1903 – J.G. Swan is the first high school principal in Klamath Falls.
1903 – Dr. Hemenway wed a local woman, Irene Chitwood and had a drug store near link River.
1903 – C.H. Withrow complies the first set of abstract books and plats of Klamath County.
1903 – G.W. White, the first president, and one of the First national Bank of Klamath Falls, were at Spring Creek’s Idlerest many times with his family of five daughters and two son, all from Klamath Falls.
1903 – May, Klamath Fall’s first baseball team.
1903 – Bureau of Reclamation sent John T. Whistler, Engineer of the Oregon District, to investigate the possibility of the Klamath area becoming the second federal reclamation project.
1903 – Large runs of salmon and trout appear in the headwaters of Upper Klamath Lake’s rivers and creeks.
1903 – Engineer Whistler found a long gradually sloping basin that on average dropped a foot in elevation every 1,000 feet. Upper Klamath Lake was at the northern end and two large shallow lakes, Lower Klamath and Tule Lake, were to the south. Water through the seasons advanced and receded between three basins and the Klamath River. The challenge for Reclamation would be to divert water from Tule Lake and Lower Klamath Lake to create productive farmland.
1903 – J.A. McIntire, manager of the Ashland to Klamath Falls Stage Line made arrangements with Klamath lake railroad to build a stage and livery barn east of Pokegama for passenger and mail service.
1903 – First notice of Klamath County potatoes in the San Francisco market.
1903 – Maude Baldwin opens a photographic studio, ” one of the town’s best enterprises.”
1903 – April 26, Wilson and heidrich bought from S.T. Summers an elegant team of Sorrels to haul fright from surrounding towns.
1903 – May 1, first trip of the new railroad from Laird to Pokegama.
1903 – September, Ewuana, steamboat, carries passengers to Klamath Agency and duck hunting parties to Odessa.
1904 – Summer, John Totton and Harry Hansberry begin building the steamboat Winema in Klamath Falls. Another source says C.W. Walker began construction on the Winema in November.
1904 – January 1, S.S. Johnson tkes over operation of McCloud River Lumber Company as president and general manager.
1904 – Four steamboats are on Upper Klamath Lake.
1904 – Earl Moore, age nine, and three men climbed down to Crater Lake for a drink and climbed back via roped from the rock wall.
1904 – July, Reclamation began the process when investigations and surveys confirmed the Project’s feasibility. Basin residents petitioned the Secretary of Interior, “99% of the people are a unit, and are clamoring for the assistance which might be rendered by the Government under the Reclamation Act.”…”the Problem Was Getting Rid of Water – “ It contains an irrigation problem, an evaporation problem, a runoff problem, any one of which is difficult in itself but all of which together form a most perplexing whole. In nearly all reclamation projects water has to be conserved. In this project there is more than enough and the question of disposing of it becomes an import part…” Project engineer.
1904 – Warren Applegate was Indian Agency service painter for many years.
1904 – Mill built at Odessa and operates for several years.
1904 – Work begins on the Baldwin building, the largest in Klamath Falls.
1904 – First city owned rock crusher and street making equipment.
1904 – S.O. Johnson moves to the west coast.
1904 – E.H. Harriman’s wife and family come to Pelican Bay Lodge. a rifle range is established at the lower end of the meadow where the lady spent a great deal of time practicing shooting.. It is rumored that President Roosevelt’s wife and two small boys joined the Harriman family.
1905 – The first accurate lake level surveys found Upper Klamath Lake 98 feet lower than the Ancient Modoc Lake highs. Lower Klamath lake was 156 feet lower and Tule Lake was 184 feet lower.
1905 – First Klamath Chamber of Commerce opens. It was preceded by two rival volunteer companies.
1905 – January 28, Steamboat Winema is launched at Klamath Falls, being 125′ x 25′ it will be the largest boat on the lake. The boat was christened by Mrs. Jennings. The Winema operates until 1919.
1905 – Approval of the Klamath Project requires Oregon and California, as well as private water rights holders, to relinquish those rights to the federal government, but not all are willing to sell. Owners of the Klamath Canal Company hold out for $200,000 for their rights. The dispute between the company and the Reclamation Service marks the first legal battle over who gets water and who doesn’t in the Klamath Basin. Reclamation agrees to pay Hawkins, Brown and Gold $150,000 for their rights and interest in the Klamath Canal Company. The Klamath project is the twelfth irrigation project authorized under the Reclamation Act of 1902.
1905 – Baldwin Hotel was built at 31 Main Street.
1905 – The Klamath Navigation Company builds the steamboat Klamath on Lake Ewauna to haul freight and passengers from Laird’s landing, Lower Klamath Lake, California to Klamath Falls, Oregon.
1905 – Robert Spink was chief clerk at Chemawa Indian Training School near salem, Oregon.
1905 – Local farmers unanimously supported the reclamation project and organized the original Klamath Water Users Association on March 4th. They told the government, “if you will be the plumber and the banker, we can do something good for the country.”
1905 – Brown trout are released in Crystal Creek.
1905 – April 6, the first timber sale of record is made to D.M. Griffith at Odessa.
1905 – Fred Goeller’s landmark three story home on Riverside Drive was completed.
1905 – April, the Medford and Crater lake Railroad incorporates.
1905 – April 11, Fish Lake Water Company applies for a storage reservoir at Fourmile and Fish Lakes, with a connecting canal 18 ft. wide. 4 ft. deep and 36 miles in length.
1905 – April 30, Maiden voyage of Winema takes people to Odessa from Klamath Falls.
1905 – May. Agnes Steveson is the first female graduate of Klamath County High school.
1905 – Judge Henry Wilson, Chief of Pelican Bay Triblet, becomes agent for the Klamath Tribe.
1905 – Midway Telephone and Telegraph Company offers 24 hour telephone service in Klamath Falls.
1905 – James Hill of Great Northern announces his intentions of entering and developing Oregon railroads competing with E.H. Harriman.
1905 – Klamath Reclamation Project was approved on May 15th, 1905 and one million dollars was immediately allocated. Reclamation began to buy, and unify, private water projects into one master plan.
1905 – May, Steamboat Winema runs aground three miles up the Wood River. It takes “one hour less that three days to turn her around.”
1905 – Six rowboats are brought from Ashland to Pelican Bay.
1905 – Charles and William Worden along with A.H. Naftzer begin the Klamath Development Company, KDC.
1905 – June 1, Klamath Development Company buys the Hot Springs property in Klamath Falls.
1905 – E.H. Harriman purchases a railroad line projected by the Weed lumber Company from Weed, Ca to Klamath Falls, Or.
1905 – June 29, C.P Huntington follows the Hood Railroad survey through Klamath County to investigate the intended California Northeastern route. This is the Weed railroad route which travels up the west side of Upper Klamath Lake.
1905 – Doctor Hemenway disposed of drug store, sold home, to Claude Davis and moved back to Ashland.
1905 – Bureau of Reclamation does first soundings of Upper Klamath Lake. Soundings are too far apart and are useless.
1905 – November, Rangers Bill Nichols, Silas McKee and Henry ireland clean up old Kasson cabin and fence off 500 acres for pasture. this is the site of the present day Ranger Station on Westside Road in Rocky Point.
1905 – November 16, an edition of The Republic states, ” the steamer Winema will go to Bare Island for a coyote chase, bring dogs but no guns.”
1905 – Chamberlain is the first Oregon governor to visit Klamath Falls. He arrives via Pokegama to attend the irrigation ratification meeting.
1905 – Bureau of Reclamation begins to drain Lower Klamath Lake and create farmland.
1905 – September, Weyerhauser Company begins buying Klamath County timberland.
1906 – Excavation begins on the “Keno Reef”, a natural dam spanning the Klamath River below Keno. This will reduce the water elevations on the Klamath River and Lower Klamath Lake.
1906 – Hansburry & Totten, owners of the steamboat Winema, have completed extensive repairs to the boat.
1906 – The Cronemiller family launches the evening newspaper Herald.
1906 – A second power plant was installed and a low diversion dam built on Link River.
1906-10: Horse drawn streetcars were in use in Klamath Falls, operated by Charles Adams (?).
1906 – March 18-24, Maud baldwin is Severly burned in her parlor: one of her hands, back and neck.
1906 – Baldwin Building opens as a hardware store and later is converted into a hotel.
1906 – Congress passes the Pure Food and Drug act.
1906 – Cabins, water tower, and private telephone are put in at Pelican Bay Lodge.
1906 – Congress passes the Hepburn Act to regulate national railroads.
1906 – Jesse Kirk died at the time he was energetically crusading for Klamath Agency reform. He wed Emma Ball and had four sons, Clayton, Seldon, Jesse Lee and Frank.
1906-07: Mrs. Leonora Gunston was a “field matron” at Yainax Agency, a widow she had two children, Eleanor, 10, (Mrs. E.R. Erickson) and Gordon, 14.
1906 – Robert Spink was Assistant Superintendent under Mr. Chalcraft at Chemama when he decided to leave the Indian Service and start a mercantile store at the Klamath Agency.
1906 – Tom Barley was Chief of Indian Police at yainax Agency. Miss Rollette was a teacher at Yainax and Miss Kallihan was in charge of the employee messhall.
1906 – U.S. Government canal in Klamath Falls costs $4,500,000.
1906 – June or July, first automobile arrives in Klamath Falls. It was shipped by rail from Portland to Ager and driven over Topsy Grade by H.E. Peltz.
1906 – July, regular mail service begins between Fort Klamath And Crater Lake.
1906 – a Klamath Republican reporter wrote this about Merrill,
“Merrill now has two general merchandise stores stocked with everything the citizen
can wish for his home, one furniture store where the home can be furnished from
top to bottom at prices that compare favorably with those of the metropolitan
cities, three well equipped hotels doing an excellent business – so much so that
they are not sufficient for the needs of the town an up-to-date restaurant building
is now being fitted up with lodging rooms in connection, two cigar and
confectionery stores, two blacksmith shops, one drug store, one butcher shop, the
only creamery in the county, two livery barns and a big feed barn under course
of construction, four saloons, bank, doctor, newspaper, very large and fine opera
house, harness shop, shoe repair shop, millinery store, flouring mill of fifty
barrel daily capacity, a real estate firm and is represented by most of the
leading fraternal societies as well as churches. A large capacity brick yard
was recently established and a large brick bank building is to be constructed.”
1906 – Marion H. Wampler homesteads Coons Point near Rocky Point, The home is named Woodbine and sits at the western end of Stidham Creek.
1906 – August 7, Cyclone from Williamson River blows steamboat Winema over off of eagle Ridge. One deck is removed because the steamboat is top heavy.
1906 – August 23, railway north from California reaches Dunsmuir.
1906 – 2,500 acres drained at Caledonia Marsh and converted to farmland.
1906 – The dredge “Klamath Queen” is brought over land to Upper Klamath Lake.
1906 – Ice merchants in Klamath Falls receive complaints of algae in the ice cut from the lake.
1906 – December 3, McCloud River Lumber Company incorporates including people from Cloquet, Minnesota.
1906 – December 5, S.O. Johnson marries Katherine Harrigan.
1907 – April or May 22, first water delivered through governmental canal from Upper Klamath Lake to Lower Klamath Lake.
1907 – First gas powered launch on lake Wocus is owned by Kendall.
1907 – April 12, the launch Buena Vista sails up Wood River to George Loosely’s house. The Buena Vista was built by Pete Perry at a cost of $3,000 and had a twenty horse-power gas engine.
1907 – April 15, Kendall sells Pelican Bay lodge to Colonel W.H. Holabird of the Klamath Development Company.
1907 – Herbert Fleishhacker becomes manager of the London, Paris and American Bank in San Francisco.
1907 – The railroad arrives in Midland, prompting construction of livestock corrals. Midland becomes the second largest shipping point in Oregon until 1924.
1907 – E.H. Harriman visits Pelican Bay Lodge.
1907 – a group of local business men incorporated the Lakeside Land Company.
They purchased 6,500 acres of land, much of which was under receding Tule Lake.
140 acres were set aside for the townsite that would become Malin.
1907 – Salmon were no longer able to swim up into the sprague and Sycan Rivers to spawn due to dams being built on Lower Klamath and no fish ladders.
1907-08: A group of Financiers and Stockbrokers from Montgomery Street in San Francisco are introduced to Spring Creek and return year after year.
1907 – J. Scott Taylor creates the first Klamath Falls daily newspaper, the morning Express.
1907 – The Klamath reservation receives telephone lines built under the supervision of Indian Service employee, clark terry who moved from reservation to reservation.
1907 – Long Lake Lumber Company opens the first local box factory.
1907-08: An executive of the Hill Railroad appeared at Yainax Agency in the first automobile seen there. He was on an inspection tour of the surveying crews and their progress in establishing prospective right of ways for their railroad to be built in the near future.
1907 – The California and Northeastern Railway agreed to build a railroad embankment across the north end of Lower Klamath Lake to double as a levee. This would give the Project the ability to divert spring runoff that would flow south into Lower Klamath Lake.
1907 – Secretary of the Interior Garfield visits Klamath Falls.
1907 – Fall, C.S. Moore withdrew from the Klamath Falls Light and water and with his brother R.S. Moore begins building a hydroelectric power plant.
1907 – October 27, Pelican, Rocky Point, post office closes.
1907 – E.H. Harriman controls ten railroads.
1908 – President Theodore Roosevelt creates nation’s first wildlife refuge for waterfowl, 53,600 acres, the Klamath Lake Reservation – now called Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge.
1908 – A temporary dam is built at Fourmile Lake for irrigation diversion.
1908 – Keno Canal completed.
1908 – Captain Nosler built his “castle” on the east side of Upper Klamath Lake.
1908 – Captain Nosler is contracted by Parker and taylor, of Forth Klamath, to build the Mazama, a 50′ x 12′ boat for Wood River trade. It is designed to have two 12 horse-power engines and twin propellers, the first of its kind on Upper klamath Lake.
1908 – John Muir, invited by E.H. Harriman to visit Pelican Bay Lodge, works on The Story of My Boyhood and Youth.
1908 – February, Hansbury and Totton dissolve partnership in steamboat Winema.
1908 – March, the Long Lake Lumber Company mill at Keno is destroyed by fire
1908 – March 3, C.J. Buck established the first known U.S. Forest Service Supervisor’s office in Medford. It was known as office of the Forest Supervisor of the Cascade ( Mazama) National Forest.
1908 – April, Houston’s opera House shows the first movie in Klamath Falls, Fleet in Frisco
1908 – Stone Jetty for the launch Buena Vista begins construction near what is now Pelican Marina.
1908 – May, J.M. McIntire opens the first auto stage, running from Dorris, California to Klamath Falls.
1908 – June, Bonanza Creamery receives $700 for butter shipped to Sacramento.
1908 – July 29, the steamboat Mazama makes trip up Wood River to the Weed bridge.
1908 – August 25, E.H. Harriman and other railroad men meet at pelican Bay Lodge to discuss plans for west coast railroads.
1908 – 40,000 gallons of huckleberries are harvested on Huckleberry Mountain just west of Crater Lake National Park.
1908 – S.O. Johnson leaves McCloud River Lumber company.
1908 – Link River is used for log driving up to 1912.
1908 – Excavation for the Clear Lake Dam begins. Construction begins on the Lost River Diversion Dam and Lost River Diversion Channel in Klamath County, Oregon.
1908 – June, Bonanza Creamery receives $700 for butter shipped to Sacramento.
1908 – September 4, E.H. Harriman’s party leaves Klamath Falls.
1908 – November 18, Public Notice #1 announces the opening of public land for reclamation homestead entry.
1908 – December, Wells-Fargo Company begins free express delivery service.
1909 – January 21, Jack Hall and Riley Previer attempted holdup of Klamath County Bank. They made off with $3,500 in cash and gold before being quickly caught.
1909 – Proponents of Wood River widening estimate 6300 tourists will visit Crater Lake national Park, and one to four million pounds of freight will be hauled to Fort Klamath yearly.
1909 – About 165 reservations were made on a special train to bring eastern colonists to Oregon.
1909 – First steamboat goes up Crystal Creek, at the time there are nine steamboats operated on Upper Klamath Lake.
1909 – Regular mail service by bat to the top of Upper Klamath Lake.
1909 – Judge wilson goes to Washington D.C. on behalf of two young Indian seeking education on the east coast.
1909 – February, Mrs. Emily Humphrey refits G.W. White residence on Fourth Street, site of the present day Claremont Hotel, and opens the first Klamath Falls hospital.
1909 – First Klamath Falls’ sewer bonds.
1909 – Captain Wickstrom starts sand business for Klamath Falls’ construction projects.
1909 – Dan and John Griffith build Eagle Ridge Tavern.
1909 – A new school proposal was to be build on the west side of Klamath Falls as opposed to the northeast side. The vote was 86 for and 65 against the pmeasure, the largest vote ever cast in a school election to that date.
1909 – April 15, new moving picture machine purchased by Mr. Houston arrives in Klamath falls. It is an Edison Projecting Renetiscope Improved Exhibition Model equipped with automatic fire-proof magazine.
1909 – Merrill was second only to Klamath Falls in population with 300 people. Wheat had
been the principal crop in the Tule Lake Basin and Merrill was now known as “Flour City.
Besides the flour mill, Merrill had electricity, two hotels, school, bank, creamery, shingle mill,
three churches, the Merrill-Weekly Record and hopes of growing to 1,000 residents.
1909 – May 6, Railroad arrivers in Klamath Falls.
1909 – May 18, Odessa passes into the hands of Colonel Holabird, working as an agent for Southern Pacific, and the resort is closed to the public.
1909 – May 20, last trip of the steamboat Klamath on Klamath River carries excursionists to greet first train entering Klamath Falls.
1909 – May 20, Southern Pacific engine #2251 is the first train to arrive in Klamath Fall sand is welcomed by 1200 local residents.
1909 – Marion Wampler opens public landing at Woodbine on Stidham Creek.
1909 – June, six million board feet of lumber moves down Wood River.
1909 – July, S.O. Johnson invest in and becomes president of Klamath Development Company and Hot Springs Company.
1909 – July 20, Eagle Ridge Tavern opens.
1909 – The Mazama, a small steamboat, begins running from Klamath Falls to Fort Klamath.
1909 – scouts from the Czech
Colonization Club in Nebraska surveyed western federal irrigation projects.
They decided the Klamath Project was the best location for a new Czech Colony.
Malin was named after a Bohemia farming community.
1909 – The Long Lake Lumber Company establishes the first “large” sawmill on Upper Klamath Lake.
1909 – County purchases road outfit equipment.
1909 – Robert Claude Spink opens the first Spink’s Camp on Spring Creek.
1909 – The first carload of automobiles arrive in Klamath Falls. George R. Hurns has three Overlands shipped from Portland for Shallock and Daggett, Charles graves and himself.
1909 – Arvid Ed Hakanson arrives in Rocky point.
1909 – In July and August many workers left for higher wages in the harvest fields. 100 Bulgarians joined the work force in August. In busy months 200 men and 60 horses worked building the Clear Lake Dam.
1909 August 12, Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors tour Upper Klamath Lake.
1909 August 13, Averill Harriman and party arrive in Klamath Falls.
1909 – August, D. M. Griffith is elected to the First National Bank’s Board of Directors.
1909 – September 9 – E.H. Harriman returning from Europe, dies unexpectedly in New York
while his family awaits him in Rocky Point .
1909 – September 30, 65 Bohemian Families settled Malin.
1909 – Thousands of garter snakes on Klamath Falls’ boardwalks.
1909 – Two outstanding gas launches make daily runs with freight, mail and passengers are the Curlew and Spray operated by Calkins and Hamilton.
1909 – October, the newly formed Pioneer Association announced president O.A. Stearns, vice-president O.C. Applegate and secretary Emma Cogswell.
1909 – October 1, C.D. Willson, of Klamath Falls, applies for a special use permit for a hotel at Rocky Point. He receives the permit 10/9.
1909 – October 14, cement blocks were placed at the corners and at each entrance of Crater Lake National Park. Iron posts every half-mile along the perimeter completed the survey and boundaries for the Park.
1909 – November, Klamath Falls Light and Power Company installs the first electric meters.
1909 – November, Mazama takes large load of potatoes up Wood River.
1909 – December, Western Union begins service in Klamath Falls.
1910 – Oregon’s population is 672,765.
1910 – Marion H. Wampler stocks rainbow trout in Fourmile Lake.
1910 – H.D. Mortenson inaugurates the Pelican Bay Lumber Company in Rocky Point, Mortenson had helped the Southern Pacific Railroad route through Klamath Falls.
1910 – The townsite of Chiloquin was known as Camp Chiloquin, ” one of the last rip-roaring lumber and cattle shipping frontier outposts of the west.”
1910 – Anton Wickstrom and john Linman build the Modoc, a 16′ x 60′ tugboat to serve the lumber industry.
1910 – 4/30 – William H. Holabird deeds 1,040 acres, from Odessa to Point Comfort, to Southern Pacific Railroad.
1910 – Steamboat Klamath moved by rail to Upper Klamath Lake.
1910 – July 7, construction on White Pelican begins. J.L. Cunningham was the contractor.
1910 – Influential citizen again applies for “frolicking ground for goats” in Rocky Point area.
1910 – Ex- Mayor of Klamath Falls builds $4,000 mansion on Crystal Creek.
1910 – Klamath Development Company headquarters built at Main and Broad Streets.
1910 – Ranger Neff and Scaler McKay survey lots of summer homes north of Rocky Point – suggested by S.A. Nye of Medford – 10 lots rented in one day.
1910 – the Moore brothers acquired all holdings of the Klamath Falls Light and Water Company and then sold it to Siskiyou Electric Power and Light.
1910 – Wolford and Wann bought out R. Spink and moved Klamath Agency store to Sprague River.
1910 – Summer – Unusually dry. 37 fires, most started by careless hunters, consumed 60,800 acres. The Cat Hill fire was the largest.
1910 – Homesteading in Rocky Point.
1910 – Oak and hickory trees planted, or seeded, at Odessa.
1910 – Doctor F.M. White, son of G.W. White, closes his practice in Klamath Falls.
1910 – Water from springs was piped into Klamath Agency homes. Hot water and bathroom fixtures were installed.
1910 – Forest Service timber sale awarded to Pelican Bay Lumber Company.
1910 – Pelican Cut, between Odessa Creek and Harriman Creek, dredged for Pelican Bay Lumber Company operations.
1910 – Eleven steamboats in operation on Upper Klamath Lake through 1914.
1910 – Track from Butte Falls to Willow Creek Summit is laid. Construction to Fort Klamath and Klamath Falls was never completed to the recession of 1910 and, later, World War I.
1910 – The Butte Falls and Western Railroad is incorporated.
1910 – November 15, the first pacific and eastern train reaches Butte Falls, with plans for connections from Butte Falls to Salt Lake City.
1910 – Winter – Temperatures reached -17 degrees at Odessa.
1911 – April, Baldwin Hotel opens with 65 rooms.
1911 – May, first paving bonds in Klamath Falls. Three contractors install the first cement walks along the northside of Main Street, between Fifth and Sixth Streets.
1911 – July 20, eight men tour from Klamath Falls via automobile. The 60 mile trip consumes forty gallons of gasoline and two gallons of oil.
1911 – August, author Jack London visits Crater Lake.
1911 – November, George H. Freese is president of the first Ministerial Association in Klamath Falls.
1911 – Herbert Fleishhacker becomes president of the Anglo and London Paris
National Bank in San Francisco, whose bank clearings, ($2,427,075),
nearly equal those of Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, Tacoma,
Oakland, and San Diego banks added together.
1911 – Large scale logging begins on Williamson River.
1911 – Rose Poole homesteads in Rocky Point.
1911 – The Klamath County Bank merges with First National Bank and Mr. Martin became bank president and his son was cashier and Mr. Reams was a bank director.
1911 – C.Y., or K.P., Hamilton has a home on Buck Island. (1911-1912).
1911 – The Express newspaper was purchased by A.C. Wrenn and renamed Pioneer Press.
1911 – Mr. Houston owns the Houston Opera House, the Temple Theater at the IOOF Building, the Star Theater and the Merrill Opera House. Movies cost ten cents.
1911 – Wharf and storehouse added to Rocky Point Resort.
1911 – Clear Lake National Wildlife Refuge, in California on the California – Oregon border, is established.
1911 – Automobiles are driven on newly paved streets in Klamath Falls.
1911 – southern pacific Railroad extended the line through Chiloquin and established a depot and ticket office.
1911 – The Pacific Highway Association kindles interest in a paved Pacific highway through Oregon.
1911 – The Samaritan Hospital opens in Klamath Falls.
1911 – November, the County home on Summers Lane opens.
1911 – December 2, the White Pelican, Hotel, is formally christened , it is one of the finest hostelries on the Pacific coast.
1912 – The 790 feet wide by 33 feet high earth and rock filled Clear Lake Dam is completed. The reservoir had a two fold purpose: irrigate Yonna and Langell Valleys and hold backwater from Tule Lake. Excess flow from here could now be sent down the Klamath River through the Lost River Diversion Canal. Pre-project this water would go into Tule Lake.
1912 – 562 acres sold to W.P. Johnson of the Klamath Development Company, including Pelican Bay Lodge and Point Comfort site.
1912 – Klamath Reclamation Project begins experimental farms in drained Tule Lake marshes.
1912 – March, “Cap” Collier begins logging operations in the Swan lake area. Some of his mill’s white pine products are used in the White House in Washington D.C. as door and window moulding.
1912 – March, logging operations at Pelican Bay Lumber Co. consists of 80 men in the woods, 1 railroad engine, 16 logging cars, a McGiffert loader, and the steamer Klamath.
1912 – April 22, Wood River Valley Cream and Butter Association incorporates.
Fort Klamath Community Methodist Church is built.
1912 – Sam Evans started the Northwestern newspaper and it had a stormy history.
1912 – Robert Spink bought the allotment of Jane Hoover, 160 acres, and moved the resort to is own land and enlarged it. This was the first purchase of land by a white person on Spring Creek. The Blairs and Hoover were two Indian famalies that owned the land at the source and both sides of Spring Creek. down to its mouth. Spink would eventually own 520 acres alonf Spring Creek.
1912 – Five million Americans each day attend a movie for entertainment.
1912 – Post office opens in Chiloquin.
1912 – July 4, White Pelican to be used as W.P. Johnson’s personal boat.
1912 – July 26, Judge Worden breaks ground for County Courthouse at Hot Springs.
1912 – Klamath Fall’s poulation is 6,000.
1912 – There are three daily Klamath fall’s newspapers: Evening Herald, Murray’s Evening Chronicle and Pioneer Press.
1912 – First Brown family sawmill on the west side of Upper Klamath Lake begins operation (1912-1914).
1912 – New stockyards are nearly completed at Crater lake Junction, replacing the small corral at the passenger depot.
1912 – August 20, Railroad depot built in Chiloquin. Trains to run twice daily between Klamath Falls and Chiloquin. The depot cost $5000 to build.
1912 – C. B. Cristler and Charles McGowman organize the Ewauna Box Company.
1912 – Robert Johnson organizes the Klamath Manufacturing Company.
1912 – San Evans buys out Chronicle and Pioneer papers and creates Northwestern newspaper. He invests $300,000 to build best newspaper plant outside of Portland.
1912 – Louie Alt homesteads 160 acres just east of the old sawmill on the north side of Odessa Creek.
1912 – Blackburn Sanitarium was finished at 1842 Esplanade Street.
1912 Construction begins on Point Comfort Lodge. Plumbing fixtures show dates of 10-1912.
1912 – N.C.O. railroad reaches Lakeview by way of the Sprague River.
1912 – Siskiyou Electric was reorganized and renamed the California Oregon Power Company – COPCO.
1912 – Woman Suffrage passes in Oregon.
1912 – The City purchases the first park site in Klamath Falls, four blocks bounded by Oak, Klamath, First and third Streets.
1912 – Crater Lake had 492 automobiles visit during the year – 39 arrived in one day. A total of 5,233 people visited the park during the year.
1913 – Earliest report of fish stocking in Lake of the Woods. A private party introduces rainbow trout from Spencer Creek.
1913 – Sports fishermen stop log driving on Williamson River.
1913 – Bohemian Club opens Point Comfort with a big party.
1913 – Cattle drives were still coming through Klamath Falls.
1913 – Fred Brown rides three days east to Lakrview, the nearest land office, to file his 160 acre homestead three miles north of Crystal Creek.
1913 – 7/29, US Bureau of fisheries reported abundant algae growth clouding the water.
1913 – Samuel Hill, “father of good roads movement” in northwest scooped first shovelful of dirt on new Siskiyou Highway near Kingsbury Springs.
1913 – October 15, Recreation post office opens in Rocky Point area.
1913 – Southern Pacific Railroad completed to Chiloquin.
1914 – John Linman builds the “Wasp”. a 13′ x 15′ tugboat to serve the lumber industry.
1914 – Hay shipped down Wood River for Pelican Bay Lumber Co.
1914 – Lamm Lumber Company organizes at modoc Point on the east side of Upper klamath lake.
1914 – February 10, Rose Poole and Maude Nail walk across ice from Odessa to Modoc Pt. to pick up mail.
1914 – Mt. Lassen erupts, continues for the next 3 years.
1914 – June 25, Orpheus Theater opens in Klamath Falls.
1914 – The Siskiyou tollgate, Dollarhole Station closes.
1914 – 1,200 acres drained at Algoma.
1914 – Second Brown sawmill is at the head of Crystal Creek. (1914-1925).
1914 – November L.L Truax is president of the first medical association in Klamath falls.
1915 – Holabird, agent for Southern Pacific Railroad, buys Point Comfort from Klamath Development Company.
1915 – March, City Hall opens in Klamath Falls.
1915 – Crater Lake Lodge Company is established.
1915 – Dam built on Sprague River near Chiloquin.
1915 – April 2 – Point Comfort Lodge deeded to Herbert Fleishhacker.
1915 – Northwestern newspaper goes out of business.
1915 – August 5, forty trains a day pass through kirk, north of Chiloquin. Six railroad companies work out of Kirk. Daily Shipments of 1,500,000 board feet of logs are transported over Southern Pacific railroad to Klamath Falls’ mills.
1915 – Dr. Hemenway died at Yainax Agency.
1915 – April 17 – Corner stone of Elks Temple laid.
1915 – Yainax Agency moved to sprague River after Ben Wolford platted the town of Sprague River and he and his partner wann built the first building there.
1915 – A carnival visits Fort Klamath.
1916 – The last big New Year’s dance is held in Fort Klamath.
1916 – January 3, Oregon goes “dry”. enforcing a state alcohol prohibition.
1916 – Elks temple opens with a “coasting” party of Third Street and refreshments are served inside.
1916 – George Baldwin is elected as oregon state senator, seated in 1917.
1916 – August 25, the national park Service was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson. Stephen T. Mather was directly responsible.
1916-20: Port Summers was the Klamath agency farmer, at Modoc Point Farm Station, assisting Frank Hutto, head farmer for the reservation. Hutto was aided by his sons: Frank, Robbie and Orie. Orie was running one of the largest cattle ranches in Klamath County.
1916 – September 10, mail is hand-delivered in Klamath Falls for the first time.
1916 – October, the Medford football team fails to defeat Klamath Falls for the first time, 13 – 13 tie on Modoc Field.
1916 – November, log drives resume on Williamson River.
1917 – 175 homesteaders file for 42 tracts of land in Klamath Reclamation Project.
1917 – January – Agreement between Klamath Development Co., and Herbert Fleishhacker to maintain water supply pipeline between water tower at Harriman Lodge and Point Comfort.
1917 – Klamath Falls Municipal Railway begins laying track.
1917 – Work stopped on county courthouse at Hot Springs Addition in Klamath Falls.
1917 – Mickey Wampler brings cattle up to feed at Malone Springs because of the harsh winter, coldest in his memory. Many cattle die falling into the springs.
1917 – 2/5 – Elk arrive at Fort Klamath brought by the Klamath Sportsmen’s Association and the State Fish and Game Commission.
1917 – Dr. Earl Russell Bush carves the “Lady of the Woods’ in a huge rock at Crater Lake.
1917 – April 2, USA joins World War I.
1917 – Exodus of family farms in the Wood River Valley begins.
1917 or 1919 – Jim Straw homesteads near the mouth of Odessa Creek –
this property floods when Link River dam is built.
1917 – Klamath Reclamation Project signs an agreement with the California-Oregon Power Company (COPCO) to build and operate the Link River Dam.
1917 – Sir Meiske Smith, president of the Dutch Shell Oil Company and his entourage were in the U.S. to introduce Shell products and organize the company in this country. His lady was the daughter of Lord Mayor of Liverpool. Smith and his party camped at Idlerest on Spring Creek.
1917 – Mrs. William Immel, the White’s youngest daughter, wed a hustling young auto mechanic, then opened and operated the Sugar Bowl on Main Street in Klamath falls. She closed it this year and moved away.
1917 – An electric plant had been built at Springs and Klamath Agency now had electricity.
1917 – Miss Ruth Ball came to Klamath Agency to teach white children of that area. She taught all grades and the school was part of the Klamath School District.
1917 – John M. Bedford was the head forester at Klamath Agency.
1917 – Clepper and more started an Indian trading post in the Chiloquin area on land leased from the Indians.
1917-18: Claudia Spink worked in the Klamath Agency as a clerk.
1918 – The first dam in the Klamath Hydroelectric Project, Copco 1, becomes operational, ending salmon runs in the Upper Klamath Basin.
1918 – March 20, Bids opened to finish courthouse at Hot Springs Addition.
1918 A Spanish influenza epidemic breaks out, lasts two years.
1918 – Chiloquin Lumber Company is organized.
1918 – Rim drive is completed at Crater Lake.
1918 – August 18, During a drought period a strong southwind stopped water flowing out of the lake via Link River for 6 hours. 1,000’s of suckers left dead in the channel.
1918 – Mr. Cooper transferred to Klamath Agency from Lakeview. father of two children, Forrest and Phillis.
1918 – Clark Terry, indian service employee, wed al local young teacher who was part Klamath Indian.
1918 – Klamath County courthouse built by architect E.E. McClaren.
1918 – The first allotments bought by white men from the Indians were on the site of Chiloquin.
1918 – Rose Poole named office manager for KDC. Later she becomes the first woman manager of a theater on the west coast.
1918 – Ruth Ball and Herbert Radcliffe, young forester at Klamath Agency, are wed.
1918 – Heber Radcliffe, after serving several years in the Indian Service, resigned and became dry kiln supervisor for ewauna Box Company for the next 24 years. He would then go work at McCloud Lumber Company for another 12 years.
1918 -19: C.C Hedrick, working for Martin brothers, built a nice home in West Chiloquin district.
1919 – Six principal logging interests on Upper Klamath Lake, five logging on west side of lake.
1919 – May, steamboat Winema is retired in drydock.
1919 – 800 acres drained at Ball Bay South.
1919 – Temporary crib dam built at head of Link River.
1919 – Soundings again taken on Upper Klamath Lake, this time at 400’ intervals.
1919 – Valley Hospital was built at 123 High Street, Klamath Falls.
1919 – Klamath Ice and Storage is organized.
( above is completed timeline as of 12-07-14, work will continue by adding a couple of years per day )
1920 – Oregon’s population is 783,369, Klamath County’s population is 11,413, Klamath Falls’ population is 4,801 and there are 992 farms in Klamath County.
1920 – July 29 , Klamath Project construction begins on the Link River Dam at the mouth of Upper Klamath Lake.
1921 – Link River Dam completed, allowing control of water releases from Upper Klamath Lake.
1921 – Klamath Project construction begins on the Lower Lost River Diversion Dam (Anderson-Rose Dam) and the J Canal to serve the Tulelake area.
1922 – Klamath Reclamation Project Homestead entries are opened to World War I veterans. Work begins on the Malone Dam.
1924 – Klamath Reclamation Project Construction begins on the Miller Diversion Dam, Gerber Dam and North Canal in Langell Valley.
1923 – 500,000 cubic yards of mud are dredged near the pelican Marina to allow log storage and navigation.
1923 – Robert Spink closed Idlerest and exchanged the farmland and house to Henry Jackson, a Klamath Indian, for 87 acres on the westside of Williamson River. He moved upon this, then platted and developed west Chiloquin.
1923 – June 5, A.L. Leavitt’s boat, “The Spray,” is grounded on Goat Island while ‘dry agents’ are searching for hidden stills.
1925 – Copco 2 Dam becomes operational.
1925 – The steamboat “Winema” is used as a dwelling on Upper Klamath Lake at Shippington.
1925 – May, Stout and Ramsdell deliver the first shipment of eastern brook trout from their first fish hatchery in Chiloquin.
1925 – May, the dance barge “Venetian” prepares for her maiden voyage.
1925 – Early June, trout are striking the march brown and blue bottle flies better than others at Crystal Creek near Rocky point.
1925 – Brook trout are introduced to Lake of the Woods.
1926 – March 4, the first log raft of the season will be seen near the Williamson River Bridge. The steamboat “Wasp” will move 400,000 feet of logs. Spring had officially arrived.
1926 – Water is being delivered to about 21,000 acres in the Klamath reclamation Project.
1927 – Snow reaches 242 inches (20.16 feet) at Rim Village, Crater Lake.
1928 – Dwinell Dam constructed on the Shasta River, cutting off most spawning habitat to the largest Klamath Basin salmon run.
1928 – Tule Lake Bird Refuge (now Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge) created.
1929 – Entrepreneurs lease Aspen Lake near Klamath Falls to start one of the largest muskrat farms in the west.
1929 – Warmest day on record at Crater lake, 92F at Annie Springs.
1930 – Oregon’s population is 953,786 and Klamath Falls’ population is over 16,000.
1932-33: Total snowfall at Crater lake was 879 inches (73.25 feet).
1933 – Commercial salmon fishing on Klamath River is banned; tribal gill-net fishing is prohibited.
1933 – February 15, 35 inches of snowfall at Crater Lake during a 24 hour period.
1933-34 – Snowfall accumulation at Crater Lake is 36.8 feet.
1934 – Congress passes the Indian Reorganization Act, providing for Indian sel-government and corporate business councils modeled on the Klamath Plan proposed in the mid 1920s by Wade Crawford and the Klamath tribe. Ironically, the Klamath tribes vote against implementing the Act.
1935 – In the 1920s and ’30s, Reclamation widens and lines existing canals, replaces the “C” Canal wooden flume with a concrete one, and expands and modifies Clear Lake Dam.
1935 – Census reveals 1,420 Indians on the roll at Klamath Agency. Thirty-five tribes are represented on the reservation.
1935 – Eighteen lumber companies are working in the Klamath Falls area.
1936 Rainbow trout are released for the first time in Fourmile Lake.
1940 – Klamath Falls has 2 railroad stations, 4 bus stations, 1 city bus, 1 taxi, 4 hotels, 1 rqdio station, 4 movie theaters, 2 swimming pools, 1 golf course and 1 riding stable. It is the largest wooden box manufacturing district in the United States.
1941 – Klamath Project construction begins on the Tule Lake diversion with the P and P-1 Canals. Workers begin the Sheepy Ridge Tunnel, a 6,600-foot east-west culvert that drains Tule Lake into Lower Klamath Lake and on to the Klamath River. Pumping plant “D” is built to lift water from Tule Lake into a tunnel that will move water west.
1941 – Chiloquin has 26 daily trains: shipments include 90 cars of forest products, 100 cars of sheep and 2500 cars of cattle.
1942 – April, Tule Lake Internment Center begins construction on Klamath Reclamation Project land.
1946 – Lands for Japanese-American Internment – Segregation Center and German prisoner-of-war camps are returned to the Project. A second wave of homestead entries attracts World War II veterans.
1947 – A bill calling for the “liquidation” of the Klamath reservation is drafted on behalf of a state wide organization.
1948 – Klamath Indian Superintendent Raymond Bitney writes to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs “… the General Council of the Klamath tribes has consistently opposed any attempts to liquidate the Klamath reservation.”
1949 – May 23, DDT spraying begins along the shores of Upper Klamath Lake to control mosquitos.
1949 – The mayor of Klamath Falls turns the first shovelful of earth for the new Klamath Yacht Club building on Front Street, facing Upper Klamath lake.
Pre-1859… Fire and Ice, Humans and Water
1860 – 1899… Roads, Linkville, Modoc Indian War, Klamath Falls
1900 – 1949… Reclamations, Trains, Farming
1950 – 1999… Timber, Ranches, Boomers
2000 – Present… Legislation, Court decisions, Science Studies
Modoc Indian War… Indians, Settlers, U.S. Army
Acknowledgements
Bill and LoEtta Cadman, Ina and Roy Reed, Pat McMillian, William Brady, Andrew Ortis, John Pratt, Art Eggleston, Rob Crawford – Crawford Farms, Bev Wampler, Richard Kopczak and Cindy Wright are some of the many folks that allowed access to their libraries and, or, shared information to help Anders compile the above timelines.
1850 – 1889 … A growing need for irrigation and power
1900 – 1949 … Reclamation & Realization
1950 – 1999 … Big projects & legislation
2000 – present … Times they are a changing
Acknowledgements
These Califoria Water timelines above are complied from Imperial Valley, San Diego, Metropolitan Water District – serving all of Southern California, Monterey, Santa Clara Valley, San Francisco and Hetch Hetchy, Central Valley, Klamath River, Upper Klamath Basin and Colorado River timelines.
Álamos, Sonora, Mexico Timelines … Álamos is at the southeast corner of the Great Basin & Range, Klamath County is at the northwest corner of the Great Basin & Range. Both Álamos and the Upper Klamath Basin are rich in history, wildlife and natural ecosystems.
©2014 Anders Tomlinson, all rights reserved.
©2014 Anders Tomlinson, all rights reserved.