Point Comfort Lodge, overlooking Pelican Bay on Upper Klamath Lake, is the best preserved of a number of lakeside resorts dating from the early years of the 20th century. Built for Klamath Development Company president S.O. Johnson after plans by San Francisco architect D.F. McDougall, the lodge was opened in 1911 as a place to entertain prospective investors.

A commodious shingle-clad building, Point Comfort Lodge epitomizes the early 20th century fashion for resort architecture, rustic in spirit, yet comfortably appointed, and it is an important visual link with the glory days of the Southern Pacific Railroad and its corporate entities in the Klamath Basin.

The years preceding the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1909, were the heyday of land developers and timberclaimers who purchased huge tracts of land, opened new businesses, and built sawmills in anticipation of the boom that a railroad was expected to bring to a young frontier town.

1909 also marked the beginning of the ascendency of the Pacific Northwest in timber production. In that year, the country's all-time record year, 44.5 billion board feet of timber were produced.

The early 1900's brought resorts with dance pavilions where, typically, oyster stew was served at midnight for weekend visitors at the close of a night of revelry.

Places like Pelican Bay Lodge (1899-1942), Odessa Hotel (1902-1928), Rocky Point Resort (1906-1979), and Eagle Ridge Tavern (1909-1926) have been torn down, burned to the ground, or modernized beyond recognition. Of all the original resort structures, the only one remaining in unchanged condition is Point Comfort Lodge.

Adapted from the NRHP Nomination Form.