Crescent Lake 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 ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

(CDP) in Klamath County,

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 ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is situated northeast of Crescent Lake and south of Odell Lake on

Oregon Route 58 Oregon Route 58 (OR 58), also known as the Willamette Highway No. 18 (see Oregon highways and routes), is a state highway in the U.S. state of Oregon. The route, signed east–west, runs in a southeast–northwest direction, connecting U.S. R ...

, and is next to

Crescent Lake State Airport Crescent Lake State Airport is a public airport located two miles (3.2 km) north of Crescent Lake in Klamath County, Oregon, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or ...

. Crescent Lake was first listed as a CDP prior to the 2020 census. The north end of the CDP, at the intersection of Route 58 and Crescent Lake Highway ( Oregon Route 429), is known as Crescent Lake Junction.

History

The community of Crescent Lake was originally located along the

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

line, south by southwest of the current Crescent Lake Junction. The former site was built after the completion of a section of railroad in 1923 (opened in 1926) called the

Natron Cutoff Natron is a naturally occurring mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate ( Na2CO3·10H2O, a kind of soda ash) and around 17% sodium bicarbonate (also called baking soda, NaHCO3) along with small quantities of sodium chloride and sodium sulfat ...

, in the

Cascade Range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

. This section superseded the route through the

Siskiyou Mountains The Siskiyou Mountains are a coastal subrange of the Klamath Mountains, and located in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the United States. They extend in an arc for approximately from east of Crescent City, California, northea ...

for trains traveling between the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, ...

and

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The community of Crescent Lake was built to service the steam trains that operated on the line until the 1950s and to maintain the track and signals over the adjacent section of the main line. Crescent Lake also served as a division meeting point where the operation of freight trains passed to fresh crews. Trains bound from Oregon to California were manned by crews from Eugene in the Willamette Valley up the "Hill" to Crescent Lake, where crews from

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 ...

relieved them for the continuation of travel to Dunsmuir in northern California. Crews operating trains in the opposite direction were similarly relieved at Crescent Lake. Each of the relieved crews remained at Crescent Lake for a mandatory rest period, after which they relieved an arriving crew and returned to their respective home location. The site included a train depot, a roundhouse, a lodging facility for resting train crews which was known as the "Clubhouse", two general stores (one containing a tavern), a restaurant, a one-room schoolhouse, and a post office. The local railroad staff included a complete section gang (right-of-way maintainers), a signal maintainer, an electrician, a station agent and shift operators, a trainmaster, a yardmaster, and several other tradesmen. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the community began moving to its present site along Oregon Route 58, which had been completed a few years earlier in 1940. In 1958, the roundhouse was decommissioned and soon torn down, and in 1970 a fire in the restaurant destroyed the remaining businesses on what is now known as Crescent Lake Highway. A few dilapidated houses remained occupied along Crescent Lake Highway as recently as the 1990s. However, the local fire department purposely destroyed what remained of the ghost town during a training exercise. All that remains of the former site is a water tower and a parking lot for winter recreation. The local post office was located in the "Odell Sportsman" general store, it was destroyed in a fire on January 23, 2009, but is now operational.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Klamath County, Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon Census-designated places in Klamath County, Oregon Census-designated places in Oregon 1926 establishments in Oregon