Note: This post originally appeared in April 2016. While examining a Government Land Office survey map of 1882, it notes the location of the Soldier’s Station.
In the fall of 1856, Levi Breed set up a trading post on the Nobles Emigrant Trail where it crosses Willow Creek, just north where the current Lassen County road A-27 crosses Willow Creek. It was second such post for the Honey Lake Valley. The following year Breed located to Janesville and became that community’s largest merchant for a number of years.
It was the military that came along next to locate on Breed’s abandoned post. In 1859, a military station, under the leadership of First Lt Milton T. Carr, A 1 Dragoons, was established at the Willow Creek crossing. Its main purpose was to protect the travelers on the Nobles Emigrant Road. This group consisted of twenty-four men from Fort Crook, Fall River Valley. “Dragoon” is the name for a mounted soldier or cavalryman.The following year, it was replaced by Soldier’s Bridge which was located further to the east and along the Susan River.