Native Americans occupied the area around Lakeview as early as 14,000 years ago, as evidenced by
artifacts found in the
Paisley Caves north of Lakeview. European explorers came through the Goose Lake Valley,
Shoshone-speaking people were living in the area. In 1827,
Peter Skene Ogden led a brigade of
Hudson's Bay Company trappers through the Goose Lake Valley. He was followed in 1832 by
John Work and his trappers. Work noted the hot springs north of Goose Lake (now called
Hunter's Hot Springs) in his journal. The hot springs are approximately north of the Lakeview town site. In 1867 and 1868, General
George Crook led
United States Army units and Indian scouts from the Wasco and Warm Springs tribes in a successful campaign against Northern Paiute bands in Eastern Oregon and Northern
California. This was part of the conflict known as the
Snake War. Crook used
Camp Warner as his supply depot and administrative headquarters. The camp was abandoned in 1874. Camp Warner was northeast of the site now known as Lakeview. In 1869,
M. W. Bullard settled along Bullard Creek at the mouth of Bullard Canyon at the northern end of the Goose Lake Valley. This became the town of Lakeview. William Heryford brought cattle into the Goose Lake Valley in 1872. In 1873, the area's first post office was opened at the Tenbrook Ranch, south of present-day Lakeview. Lake County was separated from Jackson County and Wasco County in 1874. The temporary county seat was in Linkville (now
Klamath Falls, Oregon). In June 1876, an election was held to select a permanent county seat. Prior to the election, W. M. Bullard offered to donate along Bullard Creek in the Goose Lake Valley as a site for the county courthouse. In the election, "Bullard Creek" received 120 votes while Linkville got only 88 votes. However, a majority of 384 votes was needed to determine the permanent county seat. Bullard Creek fell short because many voters wrote in names like "Goose Lake", "Goose Lake Valley", "Bullard's ranch", or "Bullard's creek". As a result, a second election was November 1876. Prior to that election, the town of Lakeview was organized at a meeting of Goose Lake Valley residents. The town site they selected was on Bullard Creek. In the second election, the new town site of Lakeview replaced Linkville as Lake County's seat of government. After the election, Bullard donated for the county courthouse as promised. Bullard sold an additional to John A. Moon, who filed a town plat with the state of Oregon, officially creating the town of Lakeview. The Lakeview post office was opened on December 8, 1876. On May 22, 1900, a fire burned most of Lakeview. There were no deaths, but 64 buildings were destroyed. Only two business structures in the downtown area survived the fire. However, the staff of the
Lake County Examiner newspaper rescued enough equipment and material to publish a special edition the day after the fire. Most of the town was rebuilt by October of that year. The town's rapid recovery was due in large part to the financing and leadership provided by
Bernard Daly. The
federal government established the
Goose Lake Forest Reserve in 1906. Later that year, the name was changed to
Fremont National Forest Reserve to honor Captain
John C. Fremont, an explorer of the area in 1843. In 1908, the
Fremont National Forest was created, and is managed by the
United States Forest Service. The forest headquarters was in Lakeview. In 1909, the
Oregon Valley Land Company conducted a week-long auction to dispose of land grants acquired from the construction of the
Oregon Central Military Wagon Road in 1865 and 1869. The auction was advertised nationwide. The rural parcels also included a separate town lot in Lakeview. Thousands of people came to Lakeview for the auction, but others purchased plots sight-unseen. During the auction, a total of were sold in approximately 14,000 parcels. Few buyers moved onto the land they purchased. Lake County used part of the taxes they collected from the sale to finance a new
county courthouse. The new brick courthouse was built in the center of town, replacing the wooden building serving as the county court since 1876. In 1911, a
narrow-gauge railway connected Lakeview with
Reno,
Nevada. The
Nevada-California-Oregon Railway operated the line until 1927, then it was sold to the
Southern Pacific Railroad. Southern Pacific converted the track to
standard gauge. The new standard rail connection prompted several
sawmills to operate in Lakeview, expanding the town's economic base. In 1913, William P. Heryford commissioned the construction of a three-story commercial building in downtown Lakeview, across the street from the Lake County courthouse. The
Heryford Brothers Building cost approximately $100,000 to construct. After it was completed, the building was the largest and most expensive structure in Lakeview. It was also the most modern, with an electric generator, central steam-heat, elevators, electric lights, hot water, and telephones. By 1940, Lakeview had seven sawmills operating in town. All of the mills had new
dry kilns for year-around operations. This increased winter employment opportunities in Lakeview, increasing economic stability in the community. The number of sawmills decreased during
World War II, leaving only three by 1946. That year, 39,000,000 board feet of timber was cut on the Fremont National Forest. However, that national forest's timber harvest increased to 81,200,000 board feet per year by 1952. To accommodate this increase, Lakeview's sawmills were expanded and modernized. In the 1950s, the payrolls and income from Lakeview's sawmills accounted for more than half of the town's economy. of the Lakeview District, where Tb are
Miocene basalt flows, and Qt are
mine tailings.
Uraninite and
coffinite ore bodies occur in
brecciated flow-banded rhyolite associated with an
intrusive dome. In the mid-1950s,
uranium mining claims were filed in the mountains north of Lakeview. However, only two mines,
White King and
Lucky Lass, were developed. In 1958, the
Lakeview Mining Company uranium processing plant was built on the outskirts of Lakeview. The mill had the capacity to process 210 tons of uranium ore daily. The mill employed 50 people; another 120 people were employed at the two mines. The uranium plant closed in 1961. In 1985, Southern Pacific announced they planned to abandon their spur line to Lakeview. However, the company continued to operate the line until it was purchased by Lake County in January 1986. Lake County contracted operation of the line to
Great Western Railway. In 1996, Lake County took over the railroad operation, then renamed it the
Lake County Railroad. From 2007, the
Modoc Northern Railroad leased the line from the county. In 2009,
Frontier Rail operated the line under the name
Lake Railroad. ==Geography==