Wild Goose Lodge
Merrill, Oregon
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We now have Destination Charging!
Located in scenic Merrill Oregon, the Wild Goose Lodge Motel dates back to the cabin court era of the 1930s. The earliest confirmed date of origination is from a cement slab found next to the rooms dated April 10, 1946. The Wild Goose Lodge Motel was built as a motor hotel type accommodation that offered the weary motorists a welcome place to stop and rest for the night. Although renovated, the building still retains the rustic look to remind our guests of that early iconic motoring era.
The Wild Goose Lodge Motel is close to many outdoor recreational areas.
Attractions include: Lava Beds National Monument, Crater Lake, Klamath and Tule Lake wildlife refuges, premier fishing, fowl and big game hunting. The Klamath Basin is home to the largest concentration of wintering bald eagles in the lower 48 states - numbering some 500 to 800 birds typically. Other visitors include massive flocks of waterfowl and large numbers of wintering raptors on this major stopover of the Pacific flyway. The Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex consists of six refuges, including Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, the nation’s first and largest waterfowl refuge.
A Little history
The first campgrounds for automobile tourists were constructed in the late 1910s. Before that, tourists who couldn't afford to stay in a hotel either slept in their cars or pitched their tents in fields alongside the road. These were called auto camps.
Auto camps predated motels by a few years, established in the 1920s as primitive municipal camp sites where travelers pitched their own tents.
Auto tourists adapted their cars by adding beds, makeshift kitchens and roof decks. The next step up was the cabin camp, a primitive but permanent group of structures. Roadside cabin camps were primitive, basically just auto camps with small cabins instead of tents.
Travelers in search of modern amenities soon would find them at cottage courts and tourist courts. The price was higher, but the cabins had electricity, indoor bathrooms, and occasionally a private garage or carport.
Combining the individual cabins of the tourist court under a single roof yielded the motor court or motor hotel.
The term "motel" originated with the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo, originally called the Milestone Mo-Tel, which was constructed in 1925. In conceiving of a name for his hotel, Heineman abbreviated motor hotel to mo-tel after he could not fit the words "Milestone Motor Hotel" on his rooftop.
Motorhome on a 1924 Ford Model T chassis
A/C units installed from mid
June to mid September
All new
Memory Foam
Mattresses
