In 1911 the Fall River Valley High School was formed in eastern Shasta County. However, that school’s boundary extended into Lassen County, most notably the Pittville section. Prior to the Fall River school that area was in the jurisdiction of the Lassen County High School. Lassen County erroneously taxed those that served by the newly formed school. In 1912, Lassen County Auditor George Bailey addressed the Lassen County Board of Supervisors of the issue. He asked the board for permission to send out tax rebate checks to those affected-some 86 individuals. The total amount came to $483.01. The smallest amount was fourteen cents to Charlie Young and the largest was $112.00 to Thomas B. Walker.
The citation to clean up the Lassen County Courthouse grounds
When the town was incorporated in 1900, the major impetus was for fire protection. One concern was that citizens would either pile up rubbish at the nearest vacant lot or in the alternative to avoid the city’s wrath and possible fine, one could easily find a convenient location outside the confines of the city limits.This in itself poised a fire risk, but also health hazard.
It was not until 1920 that a city dump was created. On March 20, 1921, the City awarded a franchise to Frank Gerig, who offered twice weekly garbage collection at a monthly fee of fifty cents per address.
During the winter of 1930-31 a group of Mineral residents organized the Mt. Lassen Ski Club. The first officers were : L. Walker Collins, President; Art Holmes Secretary and H.K. “Husky” Beresford, Treasurer. Not only was club influential in bringing winter sports to the region, but they also brought skiing to Lassen Park. On October 23, 1931, Beresford had obtained a special use permit from the forest service to construct a fifty meter ski jump near Mineral.
The club was off to a good start. On January 17, 1932, it sponsored its first ski tournament at Mineral .To attract crowds, it was necessary to showcase the talents of professional ski jumpers. The club was able to secure the attendance of the “Viking Caravan,” a renowned group of professional Norwegian skiers–Alf Engel, Lars Haugan, Halvor Halstad, Sig Ulland Steffan Trogstad, Sverre Engine and Einar Fredbo–plus an American Ted Rex, Rex was a Michigan native, won the the 1930 U.S. Professional Ski Jumping Championship.
Mt. Lassen Ski Club, 1930
While the professional ski jumpers served their purpose in drawing crowds to the event, this was not their only intention. It provided a golden opportunity to encourage spectators to to participate in skiing, many for the first time. At the Mineral event, the morning was devoted to the public and billed as a “snow folic” where one could ski, take skiing lessons, sled toboggan and to partake in the popular ashcan slide.
In the 1910s, the State of California had the daunting task of plotting out a highway system, and there were plenty of details to be dealt with. Among them, especially for the traveling public, was the designation of highway routes. In the early 1920s, the California Automobile Association led a campaign to give descriptive names of the mountain routes. Highway boosters of the region proclaimed the route between Red Bluff and Susanville, the Lassen Volcanic Highway, since the highway went by the southern entrance of the national park. In time, the State of California began to use a numbering system, and initially proclaimed this route as Number 29. In 1935, it was changed to State Highway Route 36. The change of the number was necessary to reflect the adoption of a uniform system, where even road numbers went to east-west direction and odd ones were for north-south routes.
The east side of Honey Lake Valley is known for its arid condition. Flanagan is the driest, some historical records have noted the annual average precipitation of three inches of rainfall, which is in the range of Death Valley.
Amedee School Children on the first day of the Big Snow, Tuesday, January 11, 1911. Left to Right: Thelma James, Tom Lally, Minnie Meeske, Fred Meeske, Rita Martin, Sadie Meeske, Norma Jeanne James, Frank Martin and Gregory Martin. Courtesy of Marie Herring Gould
It was the January 1911 snowstorm that caught Amedee residents by surprise. After six day storm Amedee received six feet of snowfall, while Susanville had eight.
Amedee, January, 1911. The “x” indicates the town’s old dance hall. Courtesy of Madelyn Mapes Dahlstrom
Robert Trussell, a Johnstonville resident, who was thirteen years old at the time, stated there was a not fence post in sight in the Honey Lake Valley.
Thelma James, J.H. Pefley, Unknown and William Clayton, Amedee Depot, January 14, 1911
Marie Herring Gould who resided at Amedee during the big snow recalled the NCO Depot looked a like a giant white mound. By the end of the month the snow had melted at Amedee.
Richmond Road store-keeper. A. Farris and his monthly report of sale of canned heat..
Sterno was developed around 1900 for use in catering to keep chafing dishes warm. The product sold in little cans received the nickname of “canned heat.” It was popular with soldiers during World War I to heat their meals.
Then came along Prohibition. One of the ingredients of canned heat is methyl alcohol, than can be deadly if ingested. This did not stop individuals straining canned heat with a cheesecloth to extract the alcohol. It was not only a nation wide crisis, but a local one as well. In March 1926 the deaths of John Murphy and Pete Nelson were attributed to the consumption of canned heat. It took local officials over a year to curb the usage of this product. In the fall of 1927 both the City of Susanville and the County of Lassen passed ordinances requiring that dealers of canned heat obtain a special license to sell it. The license cost dealers $50 per quarter. It was presumed that by making the special license so high, it would eliminate the product from the shelves. It worked and canned heat was no long a problem locally.
Today, we examine Camp Susan, the nearest appearance of a military encampment the town would experience and to say it was short-lived would be understatement. In late August 1864, the 1st Nevada Territorial Infantry, a mobile military unit from Fort Churchill, under the command of Malachi R. Hassett, established a base camp near Susanville. Their mission was to scout the territory from Susanville, north to Surprise Valley and east to the Humboldt mines. In October 1864, the unit was ordered back to Fort Churchill.
There was a noteworthy at the camp. On September 12, 1864, Private Ebenezer Williams died at Camp Susan. Williams, a native of Wales, had just enlisted in February 1864. My records do not indicate a cause of death or burial.
At the moment, I am searching for the proverbial needle in the haystack. There was the retrieval of three Banker Boxes from storage that consisted of Lassen County archives that I retrieved in 1980 from going to the dumpster. The majority of the records are the original papers of the meetings of the Lassen County Board of Supervisors for the years 1911-1919. Of course, there are exceptions and there documents from the 1920s to 1940.
At the moment, I have two stacks of documents. The first, will be scanned and and I have the information surrounding them to share. They are quite interesting involving a variety of topics that are no longer before the supervisors. The second is same, but those topics I have to research further.
On Sunday, December 28, 2025 at 4:41 p.m. a 4.7 magnitude earthquake centered at Round Valley struck. For those not familiar with Round Valley, it is due north of Susanville, as the crow flies about nine miles and is privately owned. Then on Tuesday night, December 30 at 9:49 p.m. a second 4.9 earthquake occurred there.
It should be noted that east side of Eagle Lake a consist of fault blocks namely Mahogany and Blacks Mountain. You can read about the 1889 Eagle Lake earthquake here. There was a notable quake in 1921, though not as strong.
Personally, I really felt the first one (2025) since, I was preparing dinner (garlic noodles) when it struck. My milk bottle collection rattled and my mantle clock stopped. The second one, I was in bed, but I heard things rattle.
This was a quite surprise, the feature of Indian Valley Hot Springs that was published in 2022 was the most searched of all articles for 2025.
Operating a bath house to a full scale resort utilizing hot springs has in my perspective is a risky endeavor. When times are good, they are real good, but same applies to bad times, and in many instances its the low points where the operation shuts down. Some times revived and some times not.
Indian Valley Hot Springs at Greenville is a perfect example. Greenville was a thriving mining community during the late 1800s. The hot springs became a popular attraction and bathing place. As the mining activity dwindled by 1900, the bath house fell into disrepair and closed.
In the spring of 1926, B.C. Johnson decided to see if he could make a go of it. He spent six weeks in getting the property in shape. Johnson highlighted the fact, that not only could a person have an enjoyable soak, but one could also “soak” in the natural beauty of Indian Valley. How long Johnson operated it I do not know.
A partial view of Indian Valley in the 1960s.
For those interested, awhile back it was on the market with an asking price of $4.95 million. With last year’s devastating Dixie Fire that destroyed a large segment of Greenville, the value might have dropped.
