Russell Brownell – Lassen CountyAssessor. He was born in Lookout in 1884, but grew up in Oregon. In 1912, he returned to Big Valley as an advocate for the Allen Camp Dam on the Pit River, which is still being debated.  In 1914, he was elected Lassen County Assessor. The following year he was in charge of Lassen County’s exhibit at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. In 1918 he was re-elected Assessor, only to resign a year later. At that time with George McDow, they subdivided a tract of land east of Susanville, known as the Milwood Tract, which extended from Hall Street to the fairgrounds, and Russell Avenue is named for him. Brownell, was an avid booster of Lassen County.  One of the projects he was working on was with the NCO Railroad was to change its terminus from Wendel to Susanville where a new route would be constructed from Secret Valley via Belfast to Susanville. However, his death came suddenly on January 5, 1923 from pneumonia. Without his energetic enthusiasm, not only did the railroad project fell through, but the Milwood Tract floundered, in which in time was acquired by the Red River Lumber Company, which fought with the City of Susanville for two decades on annexation of the property.