It was on Valentine’s Day 1869, that Susanville’s founder Isaac N. Roop passed away from pneumonia. He was only 47 years old. One of the unique contribution that Roop did for Susanville, does not that garner much attention. Susanville which one of the oldest communities of the western Great Basin, has an extra ordinarily wide Main Street. This was a fire prevention measure. Thus, should a fire break out, it could be contained to either the north or south sides of Main Street. It worked very well, and only time it failed during destructive fire of 1893. in which all of the business district was reduced to ashes.

Tim