This is brought to you by Greg Johnson, who made the expedition to Shinn Ranch on January 9, 2021. He was not only kind enough to share the photographs he took, but was gracious to give me permission to share. Thank you, Greg!
Shinn Ranch is located in a remote part of eastern Lassen County—you either know it or never heard of it. Believe me, it is not place where one would make a casual Sunday drive to visit. Shinn Ranch is not far from the Nevada border and upper Smoke Creek. It was so named for fifty-year-old Oliver Shinn who located there with his family in 1870. This is a very remote location and how Shinn found it, and why he settled there remains a mystery. As Johnson, during his visit, pondered while he accessed the ranch on a ATV, the Shinn family had no such luxury. To obtain provisions required a trek to Susanville via horseback and/or wagon.
In 1884, Oliver Shinn died there and later that year, his widow, Louise sold the ranch to the Winters family, who had extensive ranch properties in western Nevada. In 1889, George Winters planted a grove of Cottonwood trees that has had been a stand out feature of Shinn Ranch.
Tim
I spent two nights snowed bound at the Shinn Ranch, in February of 1957. At that time the ranch had a winter watchman that cared for the several hundred head of cattle pastured there. I had gone along on a trip to take some supplies in, and our vehicle, a 55 Studebaker pickup, got stuck in the snow about half way between the ranch and Hwy 395. Herb Strack, Al Lorenz, and myself decided to hike in the remaining way, thinking we were much closer to the ranch than we actually were. Several hours later, as night set in, we had finally made it as far as the cottonwood grove. The snow was about two feed deep with deeper drifts, and crusted over. Being a kid I was able to walk on the snow, but Herb, and Al kept breaking through the crust, and were pretty worn out buy the time we got to the grove. We built a fire there to warm and rest before making the last three quarters of a mile in the dark to the line cabin. The old cowboy there was pretty surprised to see two men and a kid at his door in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere. The next day we tried to get back to the truck in a hay wagon pulled by a two horse teem, but the snow was to deep, and we had to turn back. The next morning we all loaded up on horses and got back to the truck just as a group of rescuers from Herlong Jct. had arrive there. A small plane was sent to look for us, and he had dropped a note, along with a little box of Valentines Day candy hearts, to us let us know help was on the way. What a great adventure for a 10 year old kid, but the old guys were pretty done in. Just had to share one of my great adventures at the old Shinn Ranch. Sure sorry to see it has passed from a working ranch to a Historical landmark.