I had hoped by now to have completed the tale of M.O. Folsom, a rancher turned capitalist. His story has been a challenging. While the Folsom name is not well known by many today, Folsom played a key role in Susanville’s development. Here is a bit a trivia, to go along, for many decades Hobo Camp on Susanville was known as Folsom Park and he also owned what is known as Memorial Park.

In October 1917, M.O. Folsom met Charles McGowan, R.D.Baker and C.E. Cotton. The men had inspected a timber sale proposed by the Lassen National Forest in the vicinity of Peg-Leg Mountain some twenty miles north and west of Susanville. They contacted Folsom for possible mill site. Folsom had rallied the Susanville business community A committee was formed, after was at stake was a sawmill and box factory that would initially employ 250 men. The community proposed to offer a 40-acre tract with water rights adjacent to the railroad and east of the Susanville depot,  along with a  $8,000 cash bonus. McGowan and Company accepted and they named their new enterprise the Lassen Lumber & Company.

In 1919, James McNeen a Colorado lumberman contacted Folsom to assist a sawmill site west of Susanville. Folsom presented a site west of Devil’s Corral, along the railroad, and opposite the Bunnell Ranch. A deal was reached and McNeed built a sawmill with  average daily output of 30,000 board feet of lumber.  In that same year, Folsom was a member of Susanville’s Citizen Committee, and they secured Fruit Growers Supply Company to build its mill north of the railroad from tracks from Lassen Lumber.

Folsom had influence with the Red River Lumber Company. In 1892, Folsom’s father, Orman, had purchased Clear Creek from Hank Lands for an undisclosed amount. In 1909, M.O. Folsom sold it to Red River’s founder, T.B. Walker, for $6,500. At the same time, Walker acquired some 7,000 acres at Mountain Meadows, the remnants of the Goodrich Estate. Those acquisitions would result in Red River’s to establish their company town of Westwood.

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