Lake County was created from Jackson and Wasco Counties on October 24, 1874, by the State Legislature. It then included
 the present Klamath County and all of the present Lake County except Warner Valley. In 1882, land was assigned to create
 Klamath County, and in 1885 the Warner area from Grant County was added. Linkville, now Klamath Falls, was the first
 county seat.

 M. Bullard gave 20 acres (80,000 m2) as the Lakeview townsite. By the 1875 election, a town had been started and an
 election moved the county seat to Lakeview. Because of poor transportation connections with the rest of Oregon, the early
 economic orientation of Lake County was toward California: both the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Francisco
 Examiner arrived in Lakeview daily, often before The Oregonian. During the 1840s and 1850s the county was part of the
 military courier route between The Dalles on the Columbia River and the Presidio in San Francisco.