“Keeping Travel” was an expression for hosting travelers when Richard Beswick and his wife bought property in the 1860s from homesteader A.M. Johnson along the California-Oregon Stage Road on the southeast bank of the Klamath River. Johnson, who raised cattle, horses, and trapped along the river, maintained good relations with the Indians who hunted and fished on the property.
When the new stage road reached the area, the Beswicks built a 10-room hotel. Each room had a wash bowl, water pitcher, mirror, coal oil lamp, and chamber pot. Mrs. Beswick ran the hotel, which offered her home cooked meals. They sold the property in l887 to the Edson brothers and moved to Ashland, Ore.
The Edsons created the Klamath Hot Springs resort, building a 75-room hotel with a barber shop and health spa. The community of Beswick at one time had a post office, saloon and grocery store. The Edsons met trout fishermen and other guests at the Ager Railroad Station with a horse-drawn stage, replaced later with a seven-passenger Locomobile.
The Edsons sold the property in 1922, and fire destroyed it in 1924.
Sources: Overton Hessig, Alice. Looking Back: The California-Oregon Stage Road From Ager, California To Topsy, Oregon. Carson City, Nevada: Self-published, 1978. Print; "Klamath Hot Springs Hotel." Copco Lake Store. 2000. Web. 20 Oct. 2014. http://www.copcolakestore.com/in_1887.htm
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Hotels Once Attracted Guests to Klamath Hot Springs
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2542
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