In 1965, Med Arnold penned an interesting Letter to the Editor of the Lassen Advocate. Arnold (1885-1967) is known for many things, whether a magistrate at Herlong, to high school coach, and also being a grandson of Isaac Roop, the founder of Susanville. The letter’s caption “What Lassen County Needs.” With the steady decline of the lumber industry, it was important in his opinion to focus on the future. While he acknowledged the opening of the prison, the California Correctional Center, that was beneficial, it was not the future.
Arnold wrote: “It is my opinion that the most important project is the water situation, especially now with a decline in the lumber industry, which is sure to become worse in the not to distant future. If that is the fact, and I believe that it is, then we must look to helping of our farmers. The raising of crops and livestock are sure in time to become the leading industries of the county. So with that in mind we should endeavor to secure for them and adequate water supply, not for their present farms and ranches now under cultivation, but for the hundreds of idle acres now in brush.”
Arnold pressed the need to construct dams on Susan River, Willow Creek and Long Valley Creek. Not only did he stress these newly created reservoirs would furnish badly needed water, but would provide for additional recreation for fishing and such, “adding to our future economy.”
In 1968, Lassen County’s first general plan was released. That document, too, stressed the importance of the dams that Arnold referred to. They never happened and now the California
Correctional Center is on the brink of closure.