In 1914, John Spalding subdivided his brother-in-law’s Jules Hurlbut homestead for summer homes. While many took notice, the sales were dismal. Ten years later, W.J. Spalding, John’s son, revamped the subdivision to what is today.

Spalding enlisted the aid some real estate promoters from Southern California and formed the Eagle Lake Cabin Site Company. They had grandiose plans, at least on paper. There was a  proposed $100,000 resort complex, that the Eagle Lake Lodge was to resemble the Grand Canyon’s El Tovar Inn. In June 1925 the Company informed Spalding that sales were a doing great. Some 2,800 lots had been sold at $50 each “to a very desirable class of people.”. The sales remained brisk for the year.

1926, was a different story, as in buyers remorse. Some of last year’s buyers came to inspect Spaulding Tract. First they had to deal with poor road conditions and upon arrival there was no grand lodge or even a cabin. Needless, to say the lot owners were angry had invested in non-existent resort community. Over the ensuing decades lots at Spaulding could be had at bargain prices via delinquent tax sales. In 1950, Lassen County sold 524 lots during a delinquent tax sale that saw prices range from twenty cents to twenty dollars a lot.

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