In 1925, a group of Medford men offered 1,000 shares at $25 each to form the Lake of the Woods Recreation Corporation. Their goal was to create a summer fishing resort at the lake with a hotel, store, cottages, and 15 to 20 boats for the 1926 vacation season.
By 1922 cabin no. 3 was built and the general store opened in 1924. After a new road eased access to the lake, more people leased Forest Service land for summer homes. By 1937 there were 120 cabins surrounding the lake. Today there are more than 218 cabins.
Oregon pioneer Oliver C. Applegate named the lake in 1870 while constructing a road in the area.
In 1999, Doug and Becky Neuman of today’s Neuman Hotel Group cleaned up the resort and remodeled the lodge. They rebuilt the marina from the ground up and added a dockside tackle shop. The partial lodge remodeling focused on a new kitchen and a redesigned bar. The clean-up included gutting, rewiring and replacing each cabin’s plumbing.
The popular resort is part of the U.S. Forest Service’s Klamath Ranger District.
Sources: Fattig, Paul. "Group Wades into Lake of the Woods’ Past." Mail Tribune 15 Sept. 2013 [Medford, Ore.] . Print; "Resort To Be Built Up At Lake Of Woods." Ashland (Ore.) Daily Tidings 28 Aug. 1925: 1. Print; "Lake of the Woods (Oregon)." Wikipedia. 11 July 2015. Web. 21 July 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_of_the_Woods_(Oregon); "History." Lake of the Woods Mountain Lodge and Resort. 2014. Web. 21 July 2015.
