Lakeview is situated in the Goose Lake Valley at the foot of the Warner Mountains and at the edge of Oregon's high desert country.

[7] In 1827, Peter Skene Ogden led a brigade of Hudson's Bay Company trappers through the Goose Lake Valley.

[8][9] In 1867 and 1868, General George Crook led United States Army units and Indian scouts from the Wasco and Warm Springs tribes in a successful campaign against Northern Paiute bands in Eastern Oregon and Northern California.

Prior to that election, the town of Lakeview was organized at a meeting of Goose Lake Valley residents.

In the second election, the new town site of Lakeview replaced Linkville as Lake County's seat of government.

However, the staff of the Lake County Examiner newspaper rescued enough equipment and material to publish a special edition the day after the fire.

The town's rapid recovery was due in large part to the financing and leadership provided by Bernard Daly.

The new brick courthouse was built in the center of town, replacing the wooden building serving as the county court since 1876.

The new standard rail connection prompted several sawmills to operate in Lakeview, expanding the town's economic base.

[25][26] In 1913, William P. Heryford commissioned the construction of a three-story commercial building in downtown Lakeview, across the street from the Lake County courthouse.

[37] Lakeview has a typical semiarid continental Mediterranean climate (Köppen Dsb) for the leeward side of the Cascades.

Summers are hotter than western Oregon during the daytime, but nights are always cool and rare frosts can occur during July.

In addition to government employment, Lakeview has several schools, a hospital, a sawmill, a perlite mine, and a wide range of agriculture enterprises.

[46][47] According to the 2012 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau, the largest areas of employment in Lakeview are health care (18%), government agents (17%), agriculture and forestry (10%), manufacturing (9%), retail (9%), technical professions (7%), and transportation (6%).

[53] The minimum-security penitentiary, 4 miles (6 km) northwest of the city, employs a staff of 100 and holds about 400 convicts.

Local attractions include fishing, birdwatching, camping, hang gliding, paragliding, hiking, rockhounding, hunting, and nature viewing.

[54][55] Since 1999, Lake County and the City of Lakeview offer tax incentives to invite renewable energy companies.

Iberdrola Renewables planned to build a 26.8-megawatt biomass facility to convert sawmill waste and forest slash into electricity.

The ski hill is in the Fremont–Winema National Forest 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Lakeview on Oregon Route 140.

[58] Lakeview is known as one of the best places in North America for hang-gliding and paragliding, and was designated "the Hang Gliding Capital of the West" in 1991.

[59] For at least two decades, Lakeview hosted the "Umpteenth Annual Festival of Free Flight" over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, sponsored by the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, and various local businesses.

Some people attributed this to farm irrigation during the spring and summer; others believe it may be caused by geothermal development the City of Lakeview supplies the Warner Creek Correctional Facility with water for heating.

However, the city and the Oregon Department of Corrections deny any cause-and-effect relationship between geothermal development and the geyser's periodic dormancy.

[69] Since 2013, the former Daly Middle School building is the Klamath Community College's Innovative and Learning Center.

Many students from high schools in Lake County attended college on scholarships provided in trust by pioneer physician Bernard Daly.

He was associated with an act of 'frontier heroism' two days after a fire during a Christmas program at the isolated Oregon town of Silver Lake in December 1894.

Rancher Ed O'Farrell rode to Lakeview some 100 miles away in sub-zero temperatures to fetch Daly.

Daly and driver William Duncan made the return trip to Silver Lake in 13 hours using a buggy.

[35] The Lake County Airport is 3 miles (5 km) southwest of the Lakeview's downtown area.

Areas served includes Christmas Valley, Fort Rock, Silver Lake, Lakeview, Adel, Plush.