In 1918, the Lassen Lumber & Box Company built a sawmill and box factory at Susanville with an average annual production of 30 million board feet of lumber. Unlike the Fruit Growers Supply Company and Red River Lumber Company, who owned their timber, Lassen Lumber’s main source of timber came from two timber sales they had purchased from the Lassen National Forest. In 1919, they started railroad logging on the northside of Peg Leg Mountain. From 1919 to 1922, they operated three logging camps. In the fall of 1922, construction began on its largest logging camp—Camp Lasco. It opened in the spring of 1923, and became a seasonal home to 250 plus loggers and their families. The camp remained in operation through the logging season of 1930. In the winter of 1930, the Company leased the camp to the Western Pacific Railroad who was in the process of constructing the railroad’s Northern California Extension
The nation’s Great Depression took a toll on Lassen Lumber & Box. The company suspended its logging operations. They either purchased logs from its neighbors Fruit Growers or Red River, or in the majority of instances hired gypos, i.e., independent contract loggers.