In 1864, Lyman Collins Stiles (1832-1905) arrived in the Honey Lake Valley and became a cattle rancher. Raising cattle was lucrative as there was short supply and high demand. Life was good until the devastating winter of 1873-74. Due to heavy snows, sub-zero temperatures for long periods, it was estimated that over 75% of the livestock in the region perished.  Stiles was one of those ranchers who was hit hard.

In 1875, Stiles sold his ranch and moved to Susanville and changed his occupation to capitalist. While some ranchers were left destitute, Stiles had penchant of conserving his money in good times, to carry him through the not so good times. One must note, there were no banks in the region. Stiles and handful local individual stepped in to remedy this need. In turn, they would loan money to individuals and for collateral received a mortgage to real property. It would be a very lucrative move and since he had knowledge of cattle ranching turned out to be bonus.

In 1905, Lyman Stiles passed away and his widow, Anna followed in her husband’s footsteps and carried on with the financial business.  She did this for another decade , but for the most part it consisted of leasing and or selling of properties. It was the Gold Run property of 300 acres that remained in the Stiles ownership for an unusually long time. Lyman had purchased it in 1904 for $6,000, from Margaret Blaisdell, who had inherited it.  Lyman, and then Anna leased at a rate of $500 per year. In one of her last transactions, on March 1, 1921, she sold the Gold Run property to Robert Satica for $12,000.

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