Klamath Falls, Oregon

Good morning, my friends! We're back in our home state this morning, and just a few hours from home. I know there are two 4-legged people who will be very glad to be out of the camper this afternoon. 

Let's back up to yesterday's drive. For the second time this trip, we traveled in three states. We left Reno under cloudy skies and the threat of rain, but look out there at that spotlight of sunshine on the hillside.

We're finally back in the land of barns, and I took a lot of barn photos yesterday. We saw them in all shapes, colors, and degrees of repair, starting with this one.

This one was more of an abandoned structure, but we won't hold that against it.

Out there is White Lake, also known as Dry Lake. The Google tells me it's not a lake at all. Rather, it's a sinkhole, and dry most of the time.

Just a few miles down the road, we crossed the state line into California. There was no "Welcome to California" sign, and so the state flag will have to suffice this time around.

There were more barns in California.

Looking out toward the horizon in the image below, you can see just the thin line of Honey Lake. My map indicated Honey Lake is a dry lake as well. However, there was water in the lake when we drove by yesterday.

This has to be good news for the folks who live in the area. Indeed. We passed through the small city of Doyle, where 33 homes were lost in the Beckwourth Complex Fire of 2021. There was plenty of burn scar in this area.

Here, it burned right down to the road. Or, maybe it started there.

We stopped at a rest stop there and found lots of pretty blooming mint.

Moving on, we saw more barns.

As we approached the state line with Oregon, the landscape started to look more like home.

Just before crossing the state line, we passed through the town of Tulelake, California.

Two World War II internment camps were located near Tulelake. To the west of town, Camp Tulelake was an Italian and German prisoner-of-war camp. The other internment camp housed nearly 18,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese alien residents. It was in operation from May 1942 to March 1946. The Tule Lake War Relocation Center was one of ten Japanese internment camps in the United States. It was located approximately seven miles southeast of Tulelake. Today the western portion of the camp is occupied by the townsite of Newell. 

I regret that I didn't capture the whole of the building in the image below. There was at least one other barn quilt hiding behind our mirror.

From there, it was just a few more miles to cross the state line into Oregon. Yay!!! As a military brat, I never really had a place to call home. After 46 years in Oregon, this has been home to me for quite a long time.

It was only just a little way farther to reach our final destination in Klamath Falls. We first passed through the small town of Merrill, Oregon. Merrill was the birthplace and boyhood home of Carl Barks, the Disney comics artist who created Scrooge McDuck, among other characters. 

Merrill was named for rancher Nathan S. Merrill, who settled at this location in 1890. Nathan moved to Oregon to escape a murder charge from Rhode Island. It's believed he was a member of the notorious Tinder Affair Killing Spree of 1889. (I tried to learn more about this, but The Google let me down.) A post office was established in Merrill in 1896. The first business in Merrill was a grist mill.

Merrill celebrates an annual "Potato Festival," and so it isn't surprising that the one quilt shop in town is called the "Tater Patch Quilts." I've visited this quilt shop twice before, and so we didn't stop. We really just wanted to get to Klamath Falls and get out of the truck.

Just a little ways down the road, we reached Klamath Falls. Hallelujah!

At its founding in 1867, Klamath Falls was named Linkville. The name was changed to Klamath Falls in 1892–93. The name Klamath may be a variation of the word for "people" (in Chinookan) used by the indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau to refer to the region.

The Klamath and Modoc peoples were the first known inhabitants of the area. The Modoc’s homeland is about 20 miles south of Klamath Falls. When they were forced onto a reservation with their adversaries, the Klamath, a rebellion ensued and they hid out in nearby lava beds (now Lava Beds National Monument). This led to the Modoc War of 1872–1873, which was a hugely expensive campaign for the US Cavalry, costing an estimated $500,000, the equivalent of over $8 million in 2000. 17 Indigenous people and 83 Americans were killed.

The city made national headlines in 2001 when a court decision was made to shut off Klamath Project irrigation water on April 6 because of Endangered Species Act requirements. The Lost River sucker and short nose sucker were listed on the Federal Endangered Species List in 1988, and when drought struck in 2001, a panel of scientists stated that further diversion of water for agriculture would be detrimental to these species, which reside in the Upper Klamath Lake, as well as to the protected Coho salmon which spawn in the Klamath River. 

Many protests by farmers and citizens culminated in a "Bucket Brigade" on Main Street May 7, 2001, in Klamath Falls. The event was attended by 18,000 farmers, ranchers, citizens, and politicians. Two giant bucket monuments have since been constructed and erected in town to commemorate the event. Such universal criticism resulted in a new plan implemented in early 2002 to resume irrigation to farmers.

One other thing to know about Klamath Falls is that it is is located in a known geothermal resource area. Geothermal power has been used directly for geothermal heating in the area since the early 1900s. With some stops and starts, the system has been expanded, and according to the Oregon Institute of Technology (located in Klamath Falls), the operation is "at or near operational break-even". The system is used to provide direct heat for homes, city schools, greenhouses, government and commercial buildings, geothermally heated snowmelt systems for sidewalks and roads, and process heat for the wastewater treatment plant. 

And that's probably all you want or need to know about Klamath Falls, known affectionately as K-Falls by Oregonians. Both our sons are graduates of Oregon Institute of Technology. The main campus is located here, and so we have a special place in our hearts for the city because of the opportunities afforded our sons.

When we arrived, Smitty was in serious need of some loving. Smitty is always in serious need of some loving, so this is nothing new, whether we're traveling or not. He's a very affectionate guy. Try to ignore my wind-blown hair.

Okay, so about an hour from now, we'll be on our way. We have a long day of driving ahead, but it seems shorter knowing we'll end up in our own driveway. I'd say we'll be sleeping in our own bed tonight, but we're always sleeping in our own bed when we travel. Still, you know what I mean. 

Our goal with this trip was to make sure our Jeep towing package was working properly...think of it as a "shakedown cruise." Everything worked perfectly, and our Jeep performed better than expected for our off-road adventures. We're calibrated for Alaska now. We've heard horror stories about some of the roads in Alaska. After taking our Jeep off-road, we feel confident it can handle anything Alaska has to offer. The roads can't possibly be any worse than the roads we traveled while off-roading in Moab. 

And with that, I'm off to make breakfast. I'll see you on the other side.