Rocky Point

History

Rocky Point has long been the site of a lakeside fishing resort of summer-only residents starting in the late 19th century, including wealthy San Franciscans, such as Herbert Fleishhacker. The first post office in the area was named Pelican; it was established in 1888 and stayed open until 1907. Harriman Springs Resort was purchased by Edward Harriman in 1906. It was first named the Pelican Bay Lodge, built in 1889, and renamed Harriman Lodge by Edward Harriman. The Point Comfort Lodge (also known as the White Pelican Inn) is a National Register of Historic Places-listed hotel built in 1912. Local residents say that the place was famous for its "galloping goats", which is a euphemism for a brothel. In 1910 steamboats would travel to Rocky Point from Klamath Falls where they would meet the Crater Lake automobile stage line, which transported passengers to complete the trip to Crater Lake overland. Klamath Lake continued to be a favorite summer retreat for San Francisco's upper class through the 1930s. Along with tourism, logging was once an important part of the area's economy, starting in the early 1900s. There was a sawmill in nearby Odessa that operated for several years. Today large-scale logging operations no longer occur in the federally managed timberlands of the region.

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