The development of Union Creek as a recreation site is directly related to its location on the only feasible travel route up the Rogue River. Constructed in 1865, the Jacksonville-Fort Klamath Military Wagon Road (Union Creek Trail) provided farmers, ranchers and merchants of the Rogue Valley with a passage to the Upper Klamath Basin and other points east of the Cascade crest that was accessible at almost all times of the year.

Union Creek was identified as a convenient and pleasant place to break a toilsome journey. By the later years of the 19th century, Union Creek had become popular with Rogue Valley residents as a camping and fishing site where families and friends gathered to visit and enjoy the scenery.

With the establishment of National Forests, forest recreation increased. When in 1910-1911 the old wagon road was improved for automobile traffic, Union Creek became a favored rest stop for excursionists to Crater Lake and for berrypickers whose ultimate destination was the historic huckleberry patches on nearby Huckleberry Mountain.

Recreation sites enhanced by the United States Forest Service drew increasing numbers of auto campers. The end of the World War I brought about the "Good Roads" movement. "Good roads everywhere" included the construction of a two-lane Crater Lake Highway (State Highway 62). Although unpaved until 1930, the highway brought more and more tourists to Crater Lake and to Union Creek.

Because the popularity of resorts diminished after the 1930s, the resort facilities at Union Creek represent a form of recreation once typical, now vanishing. The Union Creek Resort has retained its integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association in spite of continuous use by the public.

Adapted from the NRHP nomination submitted in 1980.

This 13,220-acre historic district contains eighty-one contributing buildings, five contributing structures and three contributing objects.