Christmas Valley, Oregon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Christmas Valley is an unincorporated community in Lake County, Oregon, United States.

According to Oregon Geographic Names, Christmas Valley, named after nearby Christmas Lake, was a real estate development started after World War II, with a post office established in 1963 as a rural station of Silver Lake.

1 Penn Phillips era
2 Current community
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Penn Phillips era

In 1961, developer M. Penn Phillips laid out the townsite, including its fanciful holiday street names, a water system, a golf course, a lodge, rodeo grounds, an artificial lake—Baert Lake—and the Christmas Valley Airport. Phillips aggressively promoted the community in California to young, would-be farmers and retirees, often misrepresenting the potential of the land as green and readily farmed, and quickly sold out the parcels. However, despite Phillips' claims that the community would soon have more than 5,000 residents, when purchasers got a look at what they had purchased--primarily arid high desert land--few actually moved there, and the Phillips era is regarded as largely a scam.^[1]^[2]^[3]

[edit] Current community

Over the years, new growth has included taverns, restaurants, a library, health care facilities, a volunteer fire department, and emergency medical services.^{[citation needed]} The population was 749 at the 2000 census.^[4]

Like much of Oregon's high desert, temperatures can drop below freezing in the winter.^{[citation needed]}

Both wind and solar energy are powering homes in Christmas Valley, especially in the many areas that are settled where no power lines exist.^{[citation needed]} There are more than 250 days each year to support these alternative forms of energy production.^{[citation needed]}

Christmas Valley is perhaps best known by off-road all-terrain vehicle enthusiasts worldwide who spend vacation time at the nearby Christmas Valley Sand Dunes.^[5]

The community is served by the North Lake School District, and is the center of an extensive alfalfa hay growing area.^{[citation needed]}