Summer Lake, Oregon
| Summer Lake | |
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Summer Lake Store
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 Summer Lake
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| Coordinates: 42°58′23″N 120°46′37″W / 42.973°N 120.777°WCoordinates: 42°58′23″N 120°46′37″W / 42.973°N 120.777°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Oregon |
| County | Lake |
| Elevation | 4,229 ft (1,289 m) |
| Population (2005) | |
| • Total | 90 |
| Time zone | Pacific (UTC-8) |
| • Summer (DST) | Pacific (UTC-7) |
| ZIP code | 97630 |
Summer Lake is an unincorporated community in northwest Lake County, Oregon, United States. It is on Oregon Route 31 approximately halfway between Bend and Lakeview. It is at the base of the eastern slope of Winter Ridge adjacent to the Fremont–Winema National Forests.
Summer Lake, for which the town is named, is one of the largest in Oregon at approximately 20 miles (32 km) long and 10 miles (16 km) wide. It was named by Captain John C. Frémont during his 1843 mapping expedition through Central Oregon.
Frémont and his Army Topographical team were mapping the Oregon Country as they traveled from The Dalles on Columbia River to Sutter's Fort in Sacramento, California. On December 16, 1843, the expedition struggled down a steep cliff from a snow-covered plateau to reach a lake in the valley below. Frémont named them "Winter Ridge" and "Summer Lake." From the rocky cliff overlooking the lake basin, Frémont described the discovery and naming of Summer Lake as follows:
"At our feet...more than a thousand feet below...we looked into a green prairie country, in which a beautiful lake, some twenty miles (32 km) in length, was spread along the foot of the mountain...Shivering on snow three feet deep, and stiffening in a cold north wind, we exclaimed at once that the names of Summer Lake and Winter Ridge should be applied to these proximate places of such sudden and violent contrast." (Captain John C. Frémont, December 16, 1843, Report of the Second Frémont Expedition)
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