This is Floyd Wynne with THE VIEW FROM HERE    4/1/05

            When did Klamath Falls become Klamath Falls?

            This year we are celebrating our hundredth anniversary, but when actually did Klamath Falls really become Klamath Falls?

            The fact is that it really became Klamath Falls, in a matter of speaking, some hundred and thirteen years ago.

            It was a man named Ira Leskeard who was really responsible for the name change.  A city official, Leskeard had been on a visit to Portland and came back to Linkville and began promoting the idea that Linkville was no longer a little “burg” but had become quite a town and that the idea of “ville” in the city’s name was demeaning and that it should be changed. 

            The idea gained support and eventually got authorization from the Legislature to change the name to Klamath Falls.   

            However, the postmaster decided to jump the gun a bit and so on April l, 1892, he changed the name of Linkville to Klamath Falls…..even though it hadn’t yet been fully sanctioned.

            So, the community continued to call itself Linkville,….but all mail had to be addressed to Klamath Falls.

            It must have been pretty confusing for a time.

            But, finally, after a ten month period of being known by both names as Linkville and Klamath Falls, the name change officially came on February 7, 1893.

            So why are we celebrating our hundredth anniversary when we actually changed the name to Klamath Falls some one hundred and twelve years ago? Well, even though the name had been changed, it was still just a town, and apparently it wasn’t until 1905 that an official city charter was granted and Klamath Falls officially became a

City.

            It had been a long trek for the city.   It began under a town proprietor ship under it’s founder George Nurse up until he left the community in the late 1882 or early in 1883 for a ranch just outside Yreka.

            Following his departure, a town council of sorts took over.

Speculation as to why Nurse abandoned the very town that he had begun back in 1867 has revolved around the fact that when the governing body was named for the new county of Klamath….his name was not included in any capacity.    The same was true when an effort was made in 1874 to form the area into a county to be named Lake County, but again Nurse was not mentioned for any of the county positions.  

   When Klamath was officially formed as a County in 1882 the county fathers really were the governing body for the town as well as the county.

            At any rate……now you know when Klamath Falls really became Klamath Falls.

            This is Floyd Wynne and that’s THE VIEW FROM HERE.