Once upon a time, during deer hunting season the population of Lassen County more than doubled. This was especially true during the 1940s and 1950s.
In September 1946, the Lassen National Forest expected over 20,000 deer hunters. Deer season opened on September 21, 1946 and by September 30, some 14,994 deer hunters had checked in at various points throughout Lassen County.
With that many people, problems occurred. There were four fatalities—two by gun shot and two by heart attack. The gun shot victims were Orin Gerig of Bieber and Columbo Fortino of Oakland, who was shot in the leg at Mill Creek, taken to the Westwood Hospital where he succumbed of his injuries. James Maloney of San Francisco died of heart attack while hunting near Termo, and the same fate happened to Clel Tally of Sacramento near Pine Creek Valley.
Officials were concerned about the fire danger. There were seventeen fires caused by careless deer hunters. Fortunately, none of these fires caused any major damage. No information was released as to how many deer were killed, but all the cold storage meat lockers in Susanville and Westwood were at capacity.
In conclusion, the deer season was even included in Fruit Growers Supply Company’s 1946 Annual Report:
“Much of the country in which Company timber is located is considered to have good deer hunting, and the deer season opens at a time when the woods are in the driest conditions and when the fire hazard is the greatest. The handling of the large influx of people into the general Northern California area during the deer hunting season constitutes a very serious problems to all owners and agencies interested in timberlands. In 1946, hunters and their parties were registered as they entered Lassen County area, and during one week’s time, close to 5,000 automobiles and 13,000 individuals registered as potential deer hunters. Thus more hunters were checked into Lassen County than its normal population. Despite this, the Company was fortunate in its 1946 experience with forest fires.”