Hayden Hill was Lassen County’s only mining community. Like so many others it went through boom and bust cycles. In 1908, a new vein of gold was discovered and another resurgence was on its way. The Golden Eagle the Hill’s largest mine, hired 100 men for the initial operation and more were added to the payroll. In addition, the Lassen Mining Company’s Juniper Mine enjoyed good fortune and they had over 100 men on the payroll.
It was one of the brightest moments in the town’s history, followed by one of its worst disasters. On September 11, 1910, a fire originated in a boarding house, which erupted into an inferno and destroyed the majority of the businesses and residential sections of the Hill. The fire resulted in layoffs and over 150 miners left since there was no housing. The two largest mines the Golden Eagle and the Juniper never fully recovered.
An unusual casualty of the fire was the cemetery. The cemetery was adorned with numerous wooden markers of those who had passed away, including the town’s namesake Joseph W. Hayden, were destroyed in the fire. It should be noted that in 2010, the last time I was there, the juniper tree.