An Early Ice Cave Description

An Eagle Lake ice cave, circa 1916. Courtesy of Wyn Wachhorst

With this current hot spell, I decided on a cool topic. In 1915, the Lucky Land of Lassen was a pamphlet that  produced and distributed at the Panama Pacific International Exposition that was held in San Francisco. Of course it extolled all the wonderful virtues that Lassen County had to offer.. Of notable hightlight, it contained one of the earliest accounts concerning the lava beds and ice caves of Eagle Lake. This what the brochure contained:

“To the west of Spalding lies what is known as the ‘Lava Bed country’ about seven miles long and three or four miles wide. This is the wildest region in this section, and excepting the vegetation, it is almost as when the lava first cooled. It is full of caverns, wells and cracks, one of the latter being five miles long and three to twenty feet wide. In one place it has been sounded to a depth of 160 feet and no bottom found. In this crack there is an ice cave where plenty of ice may be obtained any year until August and some years throughout the entire summer.”

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One thought on “An Early Ice Cave Description”

  1. Tim: Any idea where the bottom photo on the cover of “Lucky Land of Lassen” was taken? It’s looks like a nice spot!

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