Located at the west end of Susanville is Quarry Street, so named for a stone quarry there that was discovered in 1860. The bluff at that part of town, better known as Inspiration Point, is fault block caused by volcanic upheaval. That upheaval created a deposit of rhyolite tuff. This was an ideal material in which was used in many of town’s native stone buildings.
However, during the mid-1860s the rhyolite tuff was used to make headstones. It appears that H.F. Thompson was the only stone mason to make the headstones. Some are quite elaborate such as Capt. William Weatherlow’s monument and others quite modest such as John Anderson. Thompson also made stones that are found in the Janesville and Long Valley cemeteries.