Skyliners Lodge, built in 1935, is set to close in 2025.
The 90-year-old lodge is run by the High Desert Education Service District under a long-term lease with the U.S. Forest Service. In November, HDESD announced that it would return the lease to USFS and shutter the lodge, canceling all reservations after June 30.
HDESD is a public K-12 school district serving students in Bend, La Pine, Prineville, Redmond and Sisters. Sara Johnson, HDESD superintendent, said the district can no longer afford to run the lodge because it operates at a financial loss and “additional maintenance costs anticipated in the near future” are too much.
“Skyliner Lodge has been a valued community venue, hosting a variety of events that benefit the region,” Johnson wrote in an email to the Source Weekly. “However, the management of the lodge requires substantial resources, including time and funding, that are challenging to sustain. These resources are better redirected to align with HDESD’s primary mission of supporting education and equity.”
In addition to hosting events for schools and children in the area, the lodge is also a popular wedding destination.
Mike and Ruth Clark are caretakers at Skyliners and have lived on-site, overseeing events at the lodge for the last 14 years. They help run the children’s events and are on-site for weddings and other private events. Come June, the Clarks will also need to leave.
“It was kind of a shocker,” Mike said of the news about the upcoming closure. He said the couple had hoped to live there and care for the place for a lot longer. But the biggest hit, Mike says, won’t be to them.
“Schools have used the facility to bring kids up and get them out into nature,” Mike said. “That loss will be the biggest hit. Kids not being able to come out and get into nature that same way.”
Facilitating access to nature was the reason behind Skyliners’ creation. The lodge, located about 10 miles west of Bend, is named after — and was built by — the Skyliners Ski Club, a band of intrepid skiers who helped establish the ski culture that still permeates Bend and its surrounding communities. Completed in 1935, the lodge served as a meeting place for skiers venturing out to the ski club’s nearby playgrounds.
The club also functioned as a societal equalizer — a place where people from different income brackets could come together around a shared joy of skiing, according to the Deschutes Historical Museum. Its mission was to foster an outdoor lifestyle, a cultural value carried over from the immigrant founders’ home countries of Norway and Sweden.
Now, the fate of the historic lodge is unknown. The Clarks say that it’s possible another entity, or the Forest Service itself, might step in to keep the lodge open. But if that happens, they might not be the ones to run it.
“It’s been fun,” Mike said. “I met quite a few people and have seen a lot of kids groups, but staying will depend on who takes over and their priorities.”
Kassidy Kern, a deputy district ranger with USFS, says that the Forest Service is still figuring out what to do with the lodge.
“The Forest [Service] is still in the process of determining what the future holds for Skyliners Lodge,” Kern wrote in an email. “In the case of Skyliners, there is a need to replace the roof to minimize fire risk but also maintain historic standards for the building. The Forest Service has been successful in securing a small portion of the overall amount needed to replace the roof but will need to find additional funds to complete the work.”
—This story is powered by the Lay It Out Foundation, the nonprofit with a mission of promoting deep reporting and investigative journalism in Central Oregon. Learn more and be part of this important work by visiting layitoutfoundation.org.
This article appears in The Source Weekly January 2, 2025.
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More evidence that the California money moving here is only out to enrich themselves and not investing in this community.
We have billionaires that own homes here now. Someone can’t help this place?
How about Brooks Resources? How about Pahlisch Homes? Hayden Homes? All these developers the City of Bend is in business with? They can’t donate funds?
Of course not.
This is a great opportunity for a building/roofing company with deep pockets in our community to do the right thing. Perhaps they could donate the labor for this roof repair as a tax write-off for the non-profit and the funds already secured by the Forest Service might cover the materials.
What a community treasure this is and I hope the Clark’s can stay on as caretakers.