It is named after Hallstatt, a small market town famous for its salt mining since prehistoric times and for being the starting point of the world's oldest still-working industrial pipeline, used to transport brine to Bad Ischl (since 1596) and further to Ebensee.

In winters the road on the west shore tended to be blocked by high snow or the risk of avalanches.

When the ice on the lake was thick enough, a sled pulled by men or horses, later a motorized track vehicle was used to transport mail and persons.

Later a tunneled road was built through Hallstatt and the mail switched to transport by bus and truck.

The fixed exit weir, a 500-year old protected monument, has no bypass and therefore caused the flooding of several houses in Hallstatt on 18 June 2013.