The Frenchglen Hotel was established in 1916 by the meat packers Swift & Co. The current building was constructed in 1923 and contained five rooms. It was built for purveyors who came into the Blitzen Valley to do business with Swift & Co. and other ranchers in the area.

For much of the 1930’s the hotel was used to house the teachers at Frenchglen School. The school district paid the hotel $30.00 per month for room and board, which included three meals a day. The hotel manager would hand deliver lunch to the teachers at the school each day.

In 1934 the hotel, and the nearby P-ranch, which once served as headquarters for the French-Glenn Cattle co. were purchased by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The P-ranch then became part of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

In 1938 the Civilian Conservation Corps remodeled the hotel, adding bathrooms and planting the Carolina Poplars that frame the building today. They also added a gasoline fueled power plant bringing electricity to the hotel for the first time. The hotel ran on this gas system until 1959 when Harney Electric Cooperative brought electric power to the area.

Frenchglen Hotel was acquired by Oregon State Parks in 1972 and remodeled to it’s current state in 1975.

Since it’s creation, the hotel has been managed by Concessionaires, for Swift & Co, ODFW, and Oregon State Parks Dept. They are as follows.

1924-1929 Bud Hinton

1929-1930 Clarence Miller

1930-1950 Jennie McDonald

1950-1952 Paul Howard

1952-1975 Kenneth Pruitt

1976-1984 Malena Konek

1984-1990 Jerry & Judy Santille

1991-2022 John Ross

2023-Present Conlan & Mary Murphy