Recently, I received an invite to be one of the guest speakers for the upcoming “Rooptown Podcasts.” I declined. It has nothing to do with the people behind the podcast. I just detest “Rooptown.” It never existed, except in those who in their mindset considered Isaac Roop, a saint—which he was not—more on that for another time. Just in case, if you are new to this site, or the area, Roop founded the town of Susanville, named for his daughter, but Susan River was named for someone else prior Roop’s arrival. For the record the SusanvillePost Office was established on March 17, 1859.
Asa Fairfield in his Pioneer History of Lassen County infers that Susanville was briefly known as Rooptown in 1858. However, Fairfield is vague about any kind of documentation. In my years of research I have never found any reference in that era of Rooptown. Early newspaper correspondents gave a dateline of Honey Lake Valley. It had bothered Fairfield so much that nothing was named for him, hence the possibility of a brief existence of a Roptown.
When Fairfield writes about Roop’s death in 1869, about his disdain of Peter Lassen: “Governor Roop received very little gratitude from the people in this section. Almost everything was named in honor of Peter Lassen, who was not a pioneer settler of the county, who lived here four years and never did anything particular in the country.” Ouch. Lassen visited the Honey Lake Valley in 1850, before Roop set foot in California and in 1855 built the second cabin in the valley.
Tim,
I have at least one article from The Daily Bee, May 31, 1860, referencing Rooptown. It is titled “War at Honey Lake. – Mr. McWilliams informs the Plumas Standard, that the Indians burned three houses at Honey Lake, on the morning of May 25th. They were encamped in large numbers opposite Rooptown. The women and children were in the fort, as an attack was expected. The regulars were recently withdrawn from the valley.”