Jackson Co. looking at taking over management of part of Lost Creek Lake

JACKSON COUNTY, Ore. —Jackson County is on the verge of taking over management of a portion of Lost Creek Lake.

It’s working on a deal with the state.

This summer, when visiting Lost Creek Lake, you may notice some changes.

“It’s still the same beautiful place it always has been, the uniforms of the people of the ground are going to change,” says State Parks spokesman, Chris Havel.

Oregon Parks and Jackson County are negotiating an agreement to change the management of part of the lake.

“We’re spread a little thin, we have Valley of the Rogue State Park, TouVelle State Park, other parks scattered around the area and frankly those places are pretty busy,” says Havel.

Jackson County Parks and Roads Director John Vial says Oregon Parks approached the county in September with the opportunity.

“They had contacted us and said are you really interested in this and we called them back and said yes we’re very interested in this,” says Vial.

If it goes through, the county will run Joseph Stewart State Park, its 200 campsites, boat ramp and marina, from the state.

The marina had been leased to another business, but that deal expired at the end of 2020.

“When this opportunity came up to work with both the marina lease ending and Jackson County knowing that just statewide and generally, we look for partnerships so that everybody can do their job really well and provide good public service,” says Havel.

The County Parks Department currently operates Howard Prairie Lake Resort, Emigrant Lake, Southern Oregon RV Park, and other sites.

“We have 19 developed parks here and providing recreation for the citizens of our county is something that’s important to us and we wanna look for opportunities to improve that wherever we can,” says Vial.

As for the next steps, Oregon State Parks says they are working to get paperwork together, they hope to close the deal this spring.

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Jenna King is the 6pm and 11pm anchor for NBC5 News. Jenna is a Burbank, CA native. She graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Sports Business. During her time at Oregon she was part of the student-run television station, Duck TV. She also grew her passion for sports through her internship with the PAC 12 Network. When Jenna is not in the newsroom you can find her rooting for her hometown Dodgers, exploring the outdoors or binging on the latest Netflix release.
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