Amedee and Hayden Hill are two interesting Lassen County communities that no longer exist. Each one went through boom and bust cycles, for Amedee it was the railroads for Hayden Hill it was mining.
Amedee’s lifespan was brief. By 1892 its population was equal to that of Susanville. By the 1920s its population had dwindled to one or two, that being the caretakers of the McKissick Cattle Company who owned the majority of the town. The Nevada-California-Oregon Railroad that created the town, in certain aspect also killed the town. In between, however, with an agricultural boom and the Fernley & Lassen Railroad did briefly rejuvenate the community. In the near future, we will explore the many facets of Amedee.
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I love anything on Amedee, I grew up in Wendel just a few miles west on the railroad. And though it will be some extreme circumstances that would lead me back there, I still have a fondness for the country and a great reverence for the history and the people who were optimistic enough (even if it was somewhat irrationally place optimism) to make a life in the desert.