Howard Prairie Resort Gets New Tables, Fire Pits as $10M Upgrade Push Continues
AT A GLANCE
New equipment: More than 200 concrete picnic tables and steel fire pits
Where: Howard Prairie Resort
Purpose: Replace aging wooden tables and rusted fire pits
Recent investment: Nearly $10 million in park improvements since 2013
Other upgrades: New restrooms, electrical infrastructure, marina, lodge roof, generator, and pavement
2027 camping: Reservations are now available
More than 200 new campsite amenities are arriving as Jackson County wraps up another round of improvements at the popular mountain lake.
HOWARD PRAIRIE, Ore. — Campers returning to Howard Prairie Resort next season will find another round of upgrades waiting for them as Jackson County Parks continues a years-long effort to modernize the popular mountain campground.
More than 200 new concrete picnic tables and steel fire pits have begun arriving at the resort, replacing aging wooden tables and rusted fire rings throughout the campground.
Jackson County Parks said deliveries started over the past couple of weeks and are expected to be completed by the end of next week. Crews will begin placing the new equipment at individual campsites soon after.
The concrete tables were selected in part for their durability in Howard Prairie’s snowy, high-elevation winters. Parks officials say they should require less maintenance over time than the wooden tables they replace.
There is another camper-friendly benefit too: no splinters.
The project is the latest in a much broader series of improvements at Howard Prairie Resort.
Since 2013, Jackson County says nearly $10 million has been invested in the park. Work during that period has included two new fully accessible campground restrooms, replacement of the campground’s electrical infrastructure, a new marina, a new roof on the lodge, a backup generator for the sewer lift station, and new pavement throughout the campground and day-use areas.
The marina project was a particularly significant addition. Jackson County reported that the replacement dock opened in 2023 and was designed to provide better lake access during lower-water years.
Nearly 70 Years of Recreation at Howard Prairie
Howard Prairie Lake has been part of Southern Oregon’s landscape for nearly seven decades.
The reservoir was created following construction of Howard Prairie Dam in 1957 and 1958 as part of the federal Rogue River Basin project. It was developed primarily to support irrigation and power generation in the Rogue Valley, with recreation becoming an important use of the lake as facilities were developed around it.
Recreation facilities at Howard Prairie Resort began taking shape in 1961. Campgrounds, a restaurant and store, marina, boat ramp, docks, and day-use facilities followed in the early 1960s, helping establish Howard Prairie as one of the region’s longtime mountain recreation destinations.
That history also gives the current investment a better frame: Jackson County isn’t building a new recreation area, it’s renewing infrastructure at a park that has served generations of Southern Oregon families.
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