Praying for Oregon Counties: Klamath

Crater Lake
You visit the earth and water it, You greatly enrich it; The river of God is full of water;You provide their grain, For so You have prepared it. You water its ridges abundantly. You settle its furrows; You make it soft with showers, You bless its growth.  Psalms 65: 9-10

 

The county of Klamath, like Josephine County, is also along the southern border, touching California to the south, Jackson County to the west, Deschutes due north, Lake to the east and Lane and Douglas counties to the northwest. It was established in 1882 and named for the local Klamath Indians. The county has around 66,000 population with 20,000 of that in Klamath Falls, the county seat.

 

Klamath County contains beautiful country and includes Crater Lake and Crater Lake National Park, which was established in 1902 as the fifth national park in the United States. 

 

Those who came to Oregon in the first wave of immigrants in 1843 and the years afterwards until better routes were made, were required to build rafts and make the treacherous trip down the Columbia River. Not only was this route dangerous, the Columbia River corridor was controlled by the Hudson Bay Company and, at that point, could potentially have become the border between Canada and Oregon as that question had not yet been resolved. In this first group of immigrants, however, two brothers, Jesse and Lindsey Applegate, each lost a young son to the river. After the Applegate family survivors settled near Dallas in Polk County, the two brothers resolved to find a better route for the wagon trains, eliminating the treacherous Columbia River.  

 

Jesse Applegate is credited (or vilified, depending on your viewpoint) with blazing the Applegate Trail (also known as the Applegate-Scott, or the Southern Route) to Fort Hall in Idaho to connect the trails going to California and leading through the Rouge River area into the Willamette Valley. The trail was pretty rough and was actually used more to access the gold fields of California. Some, however, noted the good farming land of the Klamath Basin, resulting in the trail opening up a way for farmers and ranchers in to settle southern Oregon.


 

Klamath County history includes a treaty with the Klamath Indians in 1864 and the establishment of the Klamath Indian Reservation. The reservation included the Modoc, who were located just to the south and in California, as well as the Yahooskin. The Modoc and Klamath did not get along which resulted in the Modoc War of 1873-74. The Klamath were an industrious tribe and managed their resources well, becoming one of the most prosperous tribes in the U.S.

 

Drought, and issues over the environment and water rights is an ongoing issue in the Klamath Basin. 

 

Klamath Falls, the county seat, has a council-manager form of government with five council members, a mayor and a city manager. Carol Westfall is the mayor, with Phil Studenberg, Kendall Bell, Matt Dodson, Dan Tofell and Todd Andres the council members. Nathan Cherpeski is the city manager. 

 

How do we pray for Klamath County?

 

The last few years the county has been in the news frequently over water issues and drought.

Pray for that situation.

 

Pray for the city council and mayor of Klamath Falls as well as the three-person Board of Commissioners for the county: Donnie Boyd, Kelly Minty Morris, and Derrick DeGroot are the commissioners. 

 

There is much to explore and think about in Klamath County, and we will revisit the subject. And, yes, I have a cousin in Klamath Falls. 

 

Margaret

 

Images by Don White from Pixabay 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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