In the mid-1980s, I taught a course for a couple of years in Research Techniques in Local History at Lassen Community College. The students ranged in age from 18 to 78. The students received hands on training with visits to the Lassen County Courthouse to research records, and numerous other places during the course. They were always an enthusiastic bunch, and it was more the normal, the class would run over an additional hour or two.
One of my perennial students, who flunked in the second semester, so he could continue to enroll, was Philip S. Hall. Phil was born on April 1, 1909 at Constantia and was a Long Valley resident until 1974, when he sold the ranch and retired to Susanville.
The students had to complete a term paper on a local history topic, and also the origin of five Lassen County place names. Phil provided the following information on Jesus Spring, located on the west side of Fort Sage Mountains. According to Phil it was named for a Spaniard who lived at Dry Valley. He built a hand hewn pine water trough at the spring. For many years the spring was referred to as “Kasuth” or “Casuth” spring. When the Taylor Grazing Act in 1937 (now known as the Bureau of Land Management) was established, the local officials of that agency thought the name must be Jesus in Spanish and so they named it Jesus Spring.