Kalum Lake Hotel was built by George Cobb and originally intended as a roadhouse, roughly comparable to a motel of today. Typically miners and timber cruisers would stay overnight before walking the Jumper Trail* to Rosswood, a small community at the north end of the lake. Later the hotel was purchased by a couple from Florida (Everett and Ethel Dix) and operated throughout the Depression years as a wilderness lodge catering to American anglers and hunters.

*The Jumper Trail was named for a type of small sled, or "jumper", drawn by horse. The trail was not sufficiently developed to allow for horse-drawn wagons or motor vehicles.