A question was raised concerning an article about Lassen High School’s Experimental Farm of the 1930s and its location between the school buildings and the Susan River. How the high school campus evolved is an interesting tale. In the spring of 1905, the high school board was able to use a special levy tax to construct the high school. Now, that the financial issue was resolved the next order of business was to locate a suitable site to build the new school. Three properties were offered—the Brashear property at the end of South Gay Street, an empty lot of T.W. Wilson on North Roop Street and the Blake tract on Main Street, a short distance from Weatherlow Street. It was the latter that was purchased for $2,000 and became the foundation for today’s high school campus.
A decade later the whole region was transformed with the Fernley & Lassen Railroad and the Red River Lumber Company, which two other large lumber companies would follow. Adjoining the high school to the west was the Armstrong property. In 1920, the family subdivided making the Armstrong Addition, creating the streets—Berkeley, Pacific, Pomona, Stanford and Cornell. It was Cornell Street that created a major problem. At that time the street went from Weatherlow to Alexander and dissected today’s athletic field. In the 1920s, the high school acquired property from behind the school to Cornell. As enrollments continued to increase, the school finally acquired the remaining property to the river, but the process had its moment. The high school had to go through the formal abandonment of Cornell Street through the property they acquired. Two people objected, but by the early 1930s, the issue resolved and that is how the athletic field was assembled.