Adel is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in southeastern Lake County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. The community is in an arid, sparsely populated part of the state, along

Oregon Route 140 Oregon Route 140 (OR 140) is a state highway in southern Oregon, United States. It is the longest state highway in Oregon, running from the community of White City, Oregon (just north of Medford), through Klamath Falls and on to Lakeview. It ...

, about east of Lakeview. The

Warner Valley The Warner Valley is a valley in south-central Oregon in the United States. It is a remote valley at the northwestern corner of North America's Basin and Range Province. The valley is home to a chain of lakes and wetlands known as the Warner ...

surrounding Adel contains many marshes and shallow lakes, most of them intermittent. Frequented by Native Americans for many thousands of years, the valley became a region of sheep grazing and cattle ranching by the late 19th century. Adel's infrastructure includes a combined store/restaurant/bar, a post office (serving Zip Code 97620), an elementary school, and a church. Hot springs and related geological features have made one of the nearby ranches a potential site for a geothermal power station.

History

People have lived in the Warner Valley for more than 10,000 years. Evidence of Native American occupation includes

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

hunting blind A hunting blind (US), hide or machan is a concealment device or shelter for hunters or gamekeepers, designed to reduce the chance of detection by animals. There are different types of blinds for different situations, such as deer blinds and d ...

s, flakes from

obsidian Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...

tools, and other material artifacts. By historic times, the Kidütökadö band of

Northern Paiute Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...

frequented the valley and the uplands of

Hart Mountain Hart Mountain is a fault-block mountain, in Lake County, Oregon, U.S. It lies about to the east of Lakeview. It is sometimes confused with a mountain range, but is more properly described as a mountain. The two highest peaks are Warner Peak a ...

, the

fault block Fault blocks are very large blocks of rock, sometimes hundreds of kilometres in extent, created by tectonic and localized stresses in Earth's crust. Large areas of bedrock are broken up into blocks by faults. Blocks are characterized by rela ...

ridge to the east. The Euro-American

settler A settler is a person who has human migration, migrated to an area and established a permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. A settler who migrates to an area previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited may be described as a ...

community of Adel developed in the late 19th century around sheep grazing and small cattle ranches.

Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

from

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

found work here as shepherds; their surnames and their churches are part of the regional heritage. A

stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

line connected early Adel to

Fort Bidwell Fort Bidwell is a census-designated place in Modoc County, California. It is located northeast of Alturas, at an elevation of 4564 feet (1391 m). Its population is 180 as of the 2020 census, up from 173 from the 2010 census. Geography Fort Bi ...

in northern California and offered transportation three times a week. J. J. Monroe owned the Adel store. The Adel

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

was established in 1896 and was either named for a former sweetheart of the owner of the land on which it was established or for a local cow, Leda, but with the spelling reversed. Mail service at that time was limited to three days a week.

Crump Lake Crump Lake is a shallow lake in the Warner Valley of eastern Lake County, Oregon, United States. The lake covers . It is the largest of the Warner Lakes system. The lake is named for pioneer rancher Thomas Crump. Crump Lake is owned by the Ore ...

, immediately north of Adel, is named after Thomas Crump (1854–1939), who settled here in the 1890s.''Oregon Geographic Names'', p. 257 The lake, toward the southern end of a north–south chain of marshes and mainly intermittent lakes, covers about with a shoreline of about . In 1959, two days after the Nevada Thermal Power Company drilled a well on the Crump family property, a continuous

geyser A geyser (, ) is a spring characterized by an intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam. As a fairly rare phenomenon, the formation of geysers is due to particular hydrogeological conditions that exist only in ...

of steam and hot water began shooting into the air. However, during the 1960s the Crump Geyser became plugged with rocks, though it continued to emit steam. In the 21st century, the site's geoelectric potential makes it a candidate for a

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many p ...

. The state's first geothermal plant began operation at the

Oregon Institute of Technology The Oregon Institute of Technology (Oregon Tech) is a public polytechnic university in Oregon with a residential campus in Klamath Falls, Oregon, an urban campus in Wilsonville, Oregon, and additional locations in Salem and Seattle. Oregon Tec ...

Klamath Falls Klamath Falls ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Klamath County, Oregon, United States. The city was originally called ''Linkville'' when George Nurse founded the town in 1867. It was named after the Link River, on whose falls the city was ...

in 2010. Another went online near

Vale A vale is a type of valley. Vale may also refer to: Places Georgia * Vale, Georgia, a town in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region Norway * Våle, a historic municipality Portugal * Vale (Santa Maria da Feira), a former civil parish in the municipali ...

in 2012 and another, near Paisley, in 2014.

Geography

Adel lies along Oregon Route 140 about east of Lakeview in south-central Oregon. From its intersection with the main highway, Plush–Adel Road runs north along the western shore of Crump and Hart lakes in the Warner Valley while Twentymile Road runs south from Adel to northern California just west of that state's border with Nevada. Deep Creek, flowing east from the

Warner Mountains The Warner Mountains are an -long mountain range running north–south through northeastern California and extending into southern Oregon in the United States. The range lies within the northwestern corner of the Basin and Range Province, exte ...

, passes through Adel into marshlands and Pelican Lake before entering Crump Lake. Adel is above sea level. To the northeast, the Hart Mountain ridge rises to . The region is moderately geologically active with a retired geyser and several hot springs. Geothermal exploration at the Crump Geyser site in 2010 found hot springs with temperatures as high as , two shallow wells with temperatures to , and a parent source of up to .

Climate

This

climatic Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologic ...

region is typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and cold (sometimes severely cold) winters. According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

system, Adel has a

steppe climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

, abbreviated "BSk" on climate maps. Total annual precipitation in Adel averages about . The warmest month is July, with an average maximum temperature of . The coldest months are December and January, when the average lows are about .

Education

Adel School District 21 is one of five school districts comprising the Lake County Education Service District. Adel School, grades 4–8, shares students with

Plush Plush (from French language, French ) is a textile having a cut nap (textile), nap or pile (textile), pile the same as fustian or velvet. Its softness of feel gave rise to the adjective "plush" to describe something soft or luxurious, which was e ...

School District 18, grades K–3. The two schools combined have about a dozen students. For grades 9–12, the students generally attend Lakeview High School or Paisley School. The portion of the county the community is in is not in any community college district, but the county has a "contract-out-of-district" (COD) with Klamath Community College.

References

External links