Some readers may recall in October, I used an aerial of the Susan River Ranch. At that time, I mentioned the Lassen Advocate ran a weekly contest using aerial images of ranches. The above photograph was not part of that series. The ranch remained in the family for over a century. Very seasoned residents have fond memories of one its crops—watermelons. Most all of the buildings are still there with the exception of the barn.
Tim
There were all kinds of social groups of days gone by, prior the advent to television and later the internet. The Lakeside Literary Club was a group of women comprised of the Tule District a region that encompassed the lower Susan River before it enters Honey Lake.
At the May 1922 meeting of the Lakeside Literary Club, Mrs. J.T. Barnes and Mrs. Erma Haley presented a lengthy report on the Eagle Lake Irrigation Project that was currently under construction. According, to the two women, Bly’s original plans were rather dramatic. Below is an excerpt:
”While spending a vacation at the summer home of the Gallatins at Eagle Lake, Mr. Leon Bly, an engineer from San Francisco, became interested in the possibilities of making some use of this large body of water. Thirsty land might be found and the ever increasing demand for electric power could be partially applied. He planned to take the water to the Sacramento Valley by means of tunnels connecting with the natural channel of the Feather River.”
The women noted that there were too many obstacles to overcome and Bly turned his sights on the Honey Lake Valley. While Bly’s initial proposal sounds farfetched, as late as the 1960s there were plans to divert Susan River into the Feather River drainage. That would be very simple to do.
January has been an interesting month, especially research wise. While working on a story about noted archaeologist Francis Riddell, I came across something he compiled that escaped my attention. It was account of the Papoose Massacre of 1866 that was relayed to him by Kitty Joaquin. There are three versions, which will be explored in the future.
While doing some research on Marion May Hapgood, born 1902 at Likely (her parents owned the South Fork Hotel), I came across an article about how Stover Mountain was in eruption at the same time as Lassen Peak. Then I was re-reading Marion’s grandfather Eber Bangham’s 1906 biography. This has the earliest history of Granite Creek Station. Then, in turn, I remembered that Thomas Bare who owned the nearby Deep Hole Station, also owned the meadow at Granite Creek. More about that in the future.
In the course of all of this, the Milford Cemetery pops up. According to Asa Fairfield, Mrs. Mary Harris was the first person buried there in 1867. However, in that cemetery is a marker for Philip Wales who died on June 6, 1864. Both Wales and Jacob Boody were found dead in proximity of each other, and case was never solved., Again more on that in the future.
One topic, has a way of mushrooming into several, and its an interesting journey.
Tim
In 1912, when the Southern Pacific Railroad began construction of its Fernley & Lassen branch line from Fernley to Westwood Junction, if graced the north side of Amedee. The Southern Pacific built a very small depot at Amedee, it measured 64 by 80 feet, which included the loading platform. Southern Pacific would build a much larger facility at Wendel, only five miles away, so there was no need for a large depot at Amedee. How long the depot operated, is not clear, though it does show on a 1919 timetable. What became of it, I am not sure. There are some unsubstantiated claims that it was moved to Wendel and was incorporated with the depot there.
A long time ago I had a research request from the Huntington Library. It had to do with wealth, and they wanted to know everyone in Lassen County who had assessed value of assets of over $20,000 in 1880. So off to the Assessor’s Office I go to examine the Assessment Roll for Lassen County for 1880.
There were six individuals. At the top of the list was Susanville merchant David Knoch at $30, 167. Knoch who came there in 1864, was not only a successful at his store, he found another lucrative venture—loaning money. It should be noted, there were no banks in the area, so it did not take long for people to learn who had money to lend. Knoch made sure there was collateral involved, usually in the form of a mortgage to real property. Another Susanville merchant on the list was William Greehn, who operated in the same manner as Knoch.
The other big players were the ranching community. These consisted of James Byers of the Honey Lake Valley, Andrew Reavis of Big/Dixie Valleys and Jacob McKissick of Long Valley.
McKissick’s wealth was much larger than reported for Lassen County. McKissick had extensive land holdings not only throughout Lassen County, but Washoe County. McKissick’s owned such places in the latter as an obscure place in far northern Washoe such as Hole in the Ground, to well known Reno landmark known today as Rancho San Rafael Park.
While I have addressed this topic before, it will be new to others. However, I recently acquired the above photograph and this earliest dated photograph where a street sign appears at the intersection of Lassen and Mill Streets.
By the early 1920s, with a tremendous increase in population, the Susanville Post Office had a lot of work to do. There being no home delivery of mail, the post office would get swamped for people picking up their mail. To institute home mail delivery was not as simple as it seemed.
On April 16, 1923 the Susanville City Council passed an ordinance for the numbering of houses and businesses, too. This was the first step towards residential mail delivery. It was a slow process, that took two years. In November 1925, Postmaster C.D. Mathews ordered street signs to be installed to assist the mail carriers. For many residents it was not only a novelty, but not everyone knew of the name of the street they resided on.
On December 1, 1925, residential mail delivery was instituted with three carriers for the greater Susanville area.
The following appeared in the Candelaria, Nevada newspaper about Capt. C.A. Merrill’s undertaking at Eagle Lake. (For those not familiar with Candelaria was a mining town between Hawthorne and Tonopah.
Not only did Merrill plan to tap Eagle Lake for irrigation, but he planned for a major manufacturing city at Belfast. With the tunnel, along flumes, it was the intent to log the timber at Eagle Lake, float it across to the tunnel, where eventually using Willow Creek and a series of flumes, the logs would then be manufactured at Belfast. The enterprise was widely followed by the press in California and Nevada.
True Fissure, March 25, 1882: “The Eagle Lake Tunnel. The tunnel to tap Eagle Lake is being advanced at the of thirty-five feet per week. It will be about a mile and half long, and it is expected that it will be completed next fall. It will furnish water power for running several sawmills and finally will irrigate a great area of now barren sagebrush land in Honey Lake Valley. The tapping of the lake is an experiment that is being watched with great interest everywhere on the coast. Should it prove as successful as is anticipated, it will be followed by a similar tapping of many lakes on both sides of the Sierra for mining, timbering and other purposes.”
Finally, a big thank you to Bill Johnson for sending along this article.
In what may be considered a small world, especially with the internet, a number of people check out this site while researching something. Two months ago, a reader from Amsterdam came across my 2017 post on Ice Harvesting. This person requested permission to use the above photograph in an essay. I was more than happy to oblige, as I am a firm believer in sharing history.
Tim
While in the past I have noted the January 1916 snowstorm, followed by a very cold spell. For the record here are the statistics for that month observed at the Susanville station.
The average maximum temperature was 35 degrees and the average low of 12. On January 23, the record high for the month was 50 degrees and on January 30 saw a record low of -14 below zero. It was a snowy month with 104 inches and on January 2 the greatest amount of snow in one day was 32 inches.
Tim
The tossing of old documents takes on many forms. Believe me I witnessed a lot over the years and became an expert “dumpster diver.”
Recently, Susanville native, Edward Standard (1930-2021) passed away. Sometimes, what was intentionally destined to be destroyed gets a last minute reprieve. Ed was working for Fruit Growers Supply Company at the time the mill was being closed in Susanville back in 1964. He was assigned the task to take a number of records from the office to be disposed in the company’s burner. He carried out most of his duty, except for one packet. What he saved was about 600 commercial negatives of O.O. Winn who photographed the construction of the mill in 1920-21. He never said anything about it.
Fast forward to the fall of 1998. It was common knowledge that I was working on the logging operations of Fruit Growers. In September I had an opportunity to go to Cornwall, England to meet my grandfather John Tanner’s only living first cousin. While I was away brought the negatives by and placed them between the screen and front door. It was quite the surprise when I returned home.
Tim