Mayor A. Kalina of Malin

A. Kalina, pictured here in October 1937, was mayor of Malin, Oregon for 27 of the town’s first 28 years.  Malin, located on land that was once covered by Tule Lake, was founded and named by members of the Czech Colonization Club in 1910, a group of immigrants who wanted to establish a cooperative colony on a large section of land suitable for irrigation.  The federal government, with the passage of the Reclamation Act of 1902, drained Tule Lake and other Klamath Basin lakes and watersheds for settlement and irrigation.

Frank Zumpfe, one of the Malin founders, provided shelter for new Czech settlers waiting to secure land and build a home nearby.  According to Frank’s wife, Marie, the settlers would transport building materials 30 miles from Klamath Falls.  “Somewhere a shack was started in the morning,” Marie later recalled, “and by night the owner slept there.”  Malin’s social life was friendly.  Above Walt Adams’ Malin store was a small dance hall.  “[T]he American people said they wanted to come and see the Czech people dance barefooted,” Marie remembered.  “They came and liked what they saw.”

Further Reading:
Settling of Southern Klamath County by Czech Colonization Club. Merrill, Oreg., 1985.

McArthur, Lewis L. Oregon Geographic Names. Portland, Oreg., 1992.

Written by Robert Donnelly, © Oregon Historical Society, 2003.