The Lassen County Seat Question

Lassen County Courthouse and Hall of Records, 1907. Courtesy of Gil Morrill

This being Election Day, I thought I pass along some local election folklore.  One of which that at one time, Hayden Hill was in contention to become the county seat. Only once was there was some rumbling of moving the county seat  from Susanville. In 1893, after the town’s business district was destroyed by fire, there was some talk to relocate the county seat to Amedee.

In 1864, when the election was held to organize Lassen County,  the county seat question was on the ballot—Janesville or Susanville. That was a tricky election and it took some time to count the ballots. After all, the county had a polling precinct at Fort Crook (Shasta County) and one for all of Surprise Valley (Siskiyou County).  Those votes were finally rejected and Susanville won the county seat by seventy-one votes.

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