All the Charm
The Boutique Mossbrae Hotel in Dunsmuir…
Step into the Mossbrae Hotel in Dunsmuir and be prepared for a boutique experience that reflects the city’s eclectic charm and historic nature. “I want people to walk in and feel that Mossbrae aligns with its surroundings, that it’s something unique and wildly unexpected,” says owner Abby Hogge. “Siskiyou itself still has that small-town hospitable vibe, and I want people to feel fully immersed in that when they’re greeted by our team at the hotel. That feeling should carry through the local coffee they drink in the morning, the regionally selected artwork they see on the walls, the fly-fishing mementos they find in our Keep Shop, all the way to the moment they check out. We may not be the fanciest, but for the traveler who is looking to find beautiful gems that still feel undiscovered, Siskiyou, and Mossbrae, of course, is exactly that.”
For Hogge, creating that kind of hospitality experience comes naturally. “My parents renovated the historic building and opened Mossbrae Hotel in 2018. They had already been in the hospitality business for many years in another small town in Humboldt County, so it’s what I grew up in. I earned my hospitality degree at Southern Oregon University, and my husband and I started building our own portfolio in Ashland. When my parents were ready to retire, it just made sense for us to buy Mossbrae and bring it into our collection.”
The vision her parents established remains at the heart of the hotel today. Rather than erase the building’s history, they embraced it. “They really wanted to lean into those historic architectural features and tried to keep as much of the original building as they possibly could. The stairway is original. The hardwood floors are original. You just can’t replicate those things, and so for us, they’re like diamonds. Having those good bones gave us the opportunity to create something that feels really authentic.”
That same philosophy extended to the artistic additions made to the building. Hogge’s parents embraced Dunsmuir’s tradition of public murals by commissioning a local artist and giving him complete creative freedom. “Thanks to my brother, who lived in town, he knew about a local muralist. The muralist was given complete creative freedom to do what he wanted to do. I had the privilege of watching him paint for a few days while we were building everything out, and it was really magical to watch the layers come together. In my opinion, he absolutely nailed it. He stayed true to who he was, and somehow it completely resonated with who Mossbrae is and who Dunsmuir is.”
That commitment to local craftsmanship continues inside the hotel’s Keep Shop, where every item is carefully sourced with intention. “You won’t find anything from Amazon. These are true artisans that we work with. We try to source as much as we can from Siskiyou County first, then California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. It’s easy to click a button online and have something show up, but that gets old. We want people to leave with something that was made by a real person and reminds them of this place.”
The shop itself carries a piece of Dunsmuir’s history. “When we were opening the Keep Shop, I put a message out to the community and asked if anyone had a merchant front desk counter lying around that they happened to know about locally. Sure enough, someone said, ‘I have the front desk from the old Traveler’s Lodge.’ I was able to procure it, and it’s this gorgeous antique front desk counter with the old hotel bell. Now it’s our front desk, and it’s where we display all of our jewelry. That’s a fun note because we’re incorporating these original pieces from Dunsmuir. It just goes to show that these buildings and these pieces haven’t left the community. They’re just hiding, waiting to be shown off.”
For Hogge, those thoughtful details are what define a boutique hotel experience. “I think people are so used to the corporate hotel experience. Some people love that, and that’s wonderful. But a boutique hotel stay is wildly different. I want Mossbrae to feel unexpected. I want people to discover something they weren’t expecting to find in a small mountain town.”
She also hopes that feeling lasts long after guests have checked out. “We see people who are looking for an authentic small-town experience. They’re looking for beautiful places that still feel undiscovered. They can hike Castle Crags, stop at Hedge Creek Falls, spend time on the Upper Sacramento, and they’re not fighting crowds. Siskiyou still feels like a hidden gem. If they leave here feeling like they experienced the real Siskiyou County, then we’ve done our job.””•
www.mossbraehotel.com
