Editing Lake County, Oregon (section)

==History==

===Pre-Columbian===
[[Pre-Clovis]] era [[coprolite]]s found in the [[Paisley Caves]] in northern Lake County in 2007 have been [[radiocarbon dating|radiocarbon dated]] to 14,300 calendar years before present.  [[DNA]] extracted from these human remains bears certain [[genetic markers]] found only in [[Indigenous people of the Americas|Native American]] populations.<ref name="archeology.org">{{Cite web |title=Pre-Clovis Breakthrough |url=http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/coprolites/ |access-date=February 12, 2011 |publisher=Archaeology.org}}</ref>  [[Luther Cressman]] found prehistoric artifacts in the [[Fort Rock Cave]]s of northern Lake County in 1938, including basketry, stone tools,<ref name="culturalsequence">{{Cite web |title=Cultural Sequence in the Northern Great Basin: The View From Fort Rock |url=http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~anthro/academics/FieldSchool/section3.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040715224414/http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~anthro/academics/FieldSchool/section3.html |archive-date=July 15, 2004 |access-date=April 9, 2007 |publisher=University of Oregon Department of Anthropology}}</ref> and a cache of woven [[Artemisia tridentata|sagebrush]] bark sandals which have been dated to more than 10,000 years ago.<ref name="sandals-UO">{{Cite web |title=World's Oldest Shoes |url=http://www.uoregon.edu/~connolly/FRsandals.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120410141010/http://pages.uoregon.edu/connolly/FRsandals.htm |archive-date=April 10, 2012 |access-date=April 9, 2007 |publisher=University of Oregon}}</ref>

===Modern===
European traders, explorers and military expeditions arrived in the region during the early part of the 19th century.  [[Peter Skene Ogden]] led [[Hudson's Bay Company]] trappers to [[Goose Lake (Oregon-California)|Goose Lake]] in 1827. In 1832, the Hudson Bay trappers under [[John Work (fur trader)|John Work]] were in the [[Goose Lake Valley]] and their journals mentioned [[Hunter's Hot Springs (Oregon)|Hunter's Hot Springs]]. Work's expedition visited [[Warner Lakes]] and [[Lake Abert]] and camped at [[Crooked Creek (Oregon)|Crooked Creek]] in the [[Chandler State Wayside|Chandler Park]] area. There they documented eating [[Prunus subcordata|wild plums]], which still grow in the area. They also reported being attacked by Indians.<ref name="lakecountymuseum.com">{{Cite web |title=lakecountymuseum.com |url=http://www.lakecountymuseum.com/Local%20History/timeline.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070818000711/http://www.lakecountymuseum.com/Local%20History/timeline.html |archive-date=August 18, 2007 |access-date=February 12, 2011 |publisher=lakecountymuseum.com}}</ref>
In 1838, Colonel [[J. J. Abert]], a U.S. engineer, prepared a map that includes Warner Lakes and other natural features using information from the Hudson Bay trappers. In 1843, [[John C. Fremont]] led a party which named [[Hart Lake (Oregon)|Christmas (Hart) Lake]].<ref name="lakecountymuseum.com" />

Lake County once hosted significant populations of [[Basques in Oregon|Basque]]<ref name="herald">http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2008/10/12/news/diversions/doc48d2fbf09b840436604006.txt{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and [[Irish people|Irish]] [[sheepherders]].<ref name="irishsheepherders.com">{{Cite web |title=Lakeview Oregon First Irish Sheepherders Lake County oregon Lakeview Sories of Sheepherders First Irish in Lake County Oregon |url=http://www.irishsheepherders.com/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226162057/http://www.irishsheepherders.com/index.html |archive-date=February 26, 2009 |access-date=October 27, 2008}}</ref>  Disputes over [[grazing rights]], exacerbated by the introduction of [[wheat]] [[farming]], led to the eruption of range wars between [[cattle rancher]]s and sheep herders. At least one band of masked [[rifle]]-armed cattlemen killed sheep in the northern part of the county and in [[Deschutes County (Oregon)|Deschutes County]] during the early 20th century and they came to be known as "sheepshooters". According to the Oregon History Project, 2,300 [[sheep]] were killed in a single night in April 1904 in Lake County.<ref name="OHSrecords">{{Cite web |title=Oregon History Project |url=http://oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/historical-records/central-oregon-range-wars/ |access-date=November 4, 2013 |publisher=Ohs.org}}</ref>

Lake County grew with the arrival of homesteaders, but the dry climate made for challenging development.

Lake County was created from [[Jackson County, Oregon|Jackson]] and [[Wasco County, Oregon|Wasco]] Counties on October 24, 1874, by the State Legislature. It then included the present [[Klamath County, Oregon|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, Oregon|Grant County]] was added. Linkville, now Klamath Falls, was the first county seat.<ref>{{Cite web |title=lakecountymuseum.com |url=http://lakecountymuseum.com/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110201110257/http://lakecountymuseum.com/ |archive-date=February 1, 2011 |access-date=February 12, 2011 |publisher=lakecountymuseum.com}}</ref>

M. Bullard gave {{convert|20|acre|m2}} as the Lakeview townsite. By the 1875 election, a town had been started 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]]: both the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' and the ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]'' arrived in Lakeview daily, often before ''[[The Oregonian]]''. During the 1840s and 1850s the county was part of the military courier route between [[The Dalles, Oregon|The Dalles]] on the [[Columbia River]] and the Presidio in [[San Francisco, California|San Francisco]].

The county acquired a railroad connection in the 1890s. That railroad spur, the [[Nevada–California–Oregon Railway]] line running from Lakeview to [[Reno, Nevada]], emphasized the isolation of the county from the rest of Oregon.<ref>[http://www.trainweb.org/highdesertrails/nco.html Nevada-California-Oregon Railroad] from trainweb.org</ref>  A devastating fire in 1900 destroyed much of Lakeview, including 75 businesses.<ref name="lakecountymuseum.com" />

During the summer of 2012, two [[wildfires]] burned large areas of Lake County. Both fires were the result of lightning strikes. The [[Lava Fire (2012)|Lava Fire]] burned over {{convert|21500|acre|km2}} of public rangeland and scrub forest in and around lava beds north of Fort Rock. The [[Barry Point Fire]] burned {{convert|92,977|acre|km2}} of public and private forest land along the [[California]] border.<ref>[http://wildfireoregondeptofforestry.blogspot.com/2012/08/morning-update-august-7-2012.html "Morning update - August 7, 2012"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161031092227/http://wildfireoregondeptofforestry.blogspot.com/2012/08/morning-update-august-7-2012.html |date=October 31, 2016 }}, "Wildfire - Oregon Department of Forestry", Oregon Department of Forestry, Salem, Oregon, August 7, 2012.</ref><ref>[https://fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5418811.pdf ''Barry Point Fire Retrospectives and Lessons Learned''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151130034008/https://fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5418811.pdf |date=November 30, 2015 }}, United States Department of Agriculture, United states Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region, Fremont–Winema National Forest, Lakeview, Oregon, May 3, 2013.</ref>