In 1876, when Capt. Charles A. Merrill formed his Lassen County Land & Flume Company to tap Eagle Lake for irrigation to reclaim the sagebrush lands of the Honey Lake Valley, in certain ways he suffered from illusions of grandeur. Of his many schemes was to log the south and west sides of Eagle Lake. The logs would be rafted across the lake to the east side of his proposed tunnel, and each log, one by one through the tunnel. From there a flume would transport the logs to his proposed city of 25,000 souls at Belfast in the Honey Lake Valley where they would be milled and shipped out by rail. This pipe dream never happened.
In 1919, when the Fruit Growers Supply Company made the commitment to establish a sawmill operation in Lassen County, they sought advice from the Lassen National Forest Service where to locate. The forest service suggested a mill site along the Pine Creek estuary, that they could use as a millpond. The forest service stated Fruit Growers, if needed could use Eagle Lake as a millpond, but with Leon Bly’s pending project there might be legal problems.