Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Local visitors to Clear Lake Resort this summer will find a new but familiar host: the Linn County Parks Department.
The Board of Commissioners last Wednesday approved the legal paperwork to allow the longtime lakeside resort on Highway 126 to be taken over by Linn County after nearly 80 years of operation by the Santiam Fish and Game Association.
“It wasn’t a difficult decision to make,” said County Commissioner John Lindsey, who oversees the parks department. “That truly is a gem for the citizens of Linn County.”
Lindsey said the chance to take over operation of the resort was “an opportunity that we cannot pass up,” even though the timing was not optimal for the county, which is involved in several parks upgrade projects right now. Commissioners became aware in April that the Santiam Fish and Game Association had decided to dissolve, he said.
Clear Lake is a spring-fed lake that spills into the McKenzie River, located just south of the junction of highways 20 and 126, on the east edge of Linn County. It is believed to have been created 3,000 years ago by volcanic action. The particularly clear lake water attracts scuba divers from around the world, as well as anglers who fish for cutthroat trout in its waters. No motorized boats are allowed on the lake, though private craft can be used.
The Santiam Fish and Game Protective Association, later shortened to the present name, was established in the 1920s by a group of men from Sweet Home, Lebanon, Albany, Scio and Brownsville, according to a Web site operated by the organization.
The nonprofit organization, formed to maintain the fish and wildlife populations in the area and to educate the public about Clear Lake, decided in January that they would cease operation of the approximately seven-acre facility, according to Tamara Hamilton, the association’s board secretary. The resort includes 16 cabins, a shower house, restaurant and lodge, and approximately 70 rowboats along with some 240 feet of dock.
The association has involved as many as 300 member families who have maintained the resort and the lake area. The number of members has dropped to about 270 recently.
Hamilton said that membership in the organization was declining and aging, which has resulted in a lack of manpower to maintain Clear Lake at an acceptable level.
“It’s been increasingly difficult,” she said. “Nobody new was coming in and taking an active part in running the resort. Nobody has time any more. Anytime we needed help we weren’t getting it.”
She said the association’s leaders have discussed dissolving for “several years” and, after another poor turnout last fall for maintenance work, the decision was made to call it quits.
“We never got help,” she said. “We never got the people here.”
After “a lot of interest,” the group got several offers, before members decided to sell out to the county because they felt that would be the best chance of preserving the resort for the public.
“Money wasn’t the issue,” Hamilton said. “What became the issue was who would run it like we would. Who would keep it affordable to the public?
“We’ve been caretakers of the lake for a very long time and we wanted to make sure that we did the best thing possible. We thought Linn County was the answer to that.”
County commissioners authorized Board Chairman Roger Nyquist to sign an agreement to purchase the assets from the association for $100,000 and to sign a lease to operate the resort until the deal with the association can be completed. The county will also acquire a special use permit from the U.S. Forest Service.
Hamilton said the association’s bylaws require that any proceeds from the sale be turned over to Oregon State University, where an endowment will be established to provide scholarships for students in the fish and wildlife program.
The acquisition has forced the county to scramble a bit, Lindsey and Parks Director Brian Carroll said. The county was already in the process of filling two rangers positions when the Clear Lake decision was made, so staffing decisions will be made as the new employees arrive, Carroll said.
“We have staff in place now to operate the facility,” he said. “We’re going to try to operate thing in a very similar manner to the Fish and Game Association. We’ll go with their recommendations for the first year as much as possible. We don’t want to change the atmosphere any more than possible. Why change what’s working well?”
He said a system to take reservations for this summer should be operating this week. For information on reservations, visit http://www.co.linn.or.us/parks or call (541) 967-3917.
One motivation commissioners had in procuring Clear Lake was to keep it out of the hands of private developers, who have leased public parks and have turned them into high-priced resorts tha the average person can’t afford, Lindsey said.
“I’ve seen it throughout the West,” he said, adding that the problem is particularly evident in Colorado and California. “They go into federal leases on federal land and nine times out of 10 they end up excluding the public.
“Clear Lake is not commercialized and a lot of people like that.”
Lindsey said the acquisition of the lake facility will strengthen a move for the county to take over management of more camping facilities along Highway 20.
He noted that the county is already completing River Bend Park, its latest campground, and is working on a plan to deal with the crush of campers who camp along the Quartzville Arm on Green Peter Reservoir during the summer months, an influx that began when Detroit Lake was drained several years ago in an attempt to bolster the salmon population.
“We have more people recreating in that arm than we have facilities for,” Lindsey said, adding that problems are caused by too many people trying to camp along Quartzville Road. “We have to get that road unblocked. It’s becoming dangerous and unsafe. People are not getting along.”
Also, the county plans to disassemble the bridge at Lewis Creek Park and is getting ready to construct the new Caulkins Boat Ramp on the east side of Foster Lake.
“We keep getting these things piled on,” Lindsey said. “We have a lot of work to do.”
But the extra burden in the short term will be worth it in the long run, he and Carroll predicted.
“We believe this is something that’s really important for the county to do,” Carroll said. “It’s a great deal for the county.”