Juniper Lake, at an elevation of 6,753 feet, covers an area of some 592 acres, making it the largest lake in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Interestingly the lake has a maximum depth of 234 feet. In the 1870s, the California State Geological Survey named it Lake Louise, but others had applied Juniper to it, and the latter won out.

Early day visitors to the lake were few. Its remoteness, along with its heavy winter snowfalls, usually did not make it accessible until June. By October, as a general rule, the snow returned, again making the place inhospitable.

In 1889, a San Francisco speculator, Elbert Dodge, appeared on the scene and filed a 475-acre claim to the northwest shore of the lake. He did nothing with it, and another San Franciscan, J.P. Frenna, later acquired Dodge’s preemptive claim. The actual owner was the State of California, which designated it as school land. In 1892, Frenna purchased it from the state for the nominal fee of $1.25 per acre.

Juniper Lake has a long sordid story of summer home development, that never came to full fruition, due to its remoteness and short summer season. I understand that the Dixie Fire (2021) ravaged the area. I have not been back there or the Warner Valley, because I do not have go that far, to see the burn scars of that fire, and others.

Tim

Linda Hartwig had a few questions of hay derricks. She stated her family homesteaded in Klamath county starting in 1892. She wants to write up some of the family stories for a children’s series and wants to be accurate about the process. For a refresher see my post about the topic here.

Linda wrote: “I have a picture from the family archives of a hay stack being built with a hay derrick and what looks like a hay net. It is rounded on the bottom and is a huge ball of hay, so doesn’t look like it could be a Jackson fork. I need enough information on how it was released so the hay could fall onto the stack.”

There were usually two men on the hay stack and their job was to evenly distribute the hay, once the hay net was released. There was a man on the ground, who had control via ropes and pulleys to release the hay. An interesting process indeed. As a matter of fact in 1939, the entire operations of the Vic Christensen ranch near Likely (Modoc County) was filmed, and I believe it had short clip of the hay derricks in use. The film named The Cattleman, was done in part of Encyclopedia Britannica’s educational films of the era. I have it onVHS tape. I did have it converted to a CD. However, I lent the CD to some one, and they never returned it.

After World War II there tremendous advances in motorized hay mowing machinery and baling of hay. In the early 1960s, the Bill Brothers of the Standish district were the last to do mowing of hay with horses and to use hay derricks.

If anyone has additional information about hay derricks in general, you are more than welcome to enlighten us.

Tim

The Gables, was a  popular restaurant/bar near Johnstonville, then along Highway 36 (now Johnstonville Road) during the 1950s and 1960 and eventually closed in the 1970s. Every now and then individuals tried their hand to resurrect it, but invariably met with little success.

Tim

On May 27, 1867, Robert C. Hayden purchased 160 acres from John Baxter, adjoining Baxter Creek, just east of present day Buntingville. There was a tragedy in the making. On the morning of May 19, 1876, three men were killed in the worst water dispute in the annals of Lassen County history. That morning, Robert C. Hayden, aged 55, went to inspect the west end of his property along the creek. There he found his neighbor, William Leith, his son, William Leith Jr. and John Thayer in the process of constructing an irrigation ditch through his property. The construction of the ditch had been an ongoing quarrel. Hayden hold them to stop digging, but they continued. Hayden warned them he would return with his “crowd.” Hayden came back with his son, Robert D. , aged 32 and Edward Bartlett, aged 67. The elder Hayden was the only one in his party with a musket. All members the Leith party had firearms. Hayden told the Leith party to stop or to shoot to b damned. Leith Sr. fired a shot at the elder Hayden, who fell to the ground and died. The younger Hayden rushed to pick up his father’s musket, charged against the Leith party and was shot by all three pf them, and he too, died on the spot. The elderly Bartlett attempted to defend himself with a grubbing hoe. Bartlett was struck over the head with a rifle, either by one of the Leith’s or Thayer. The record is not clear and Thayer died three days later from fractures to his skull. The thee men were charged with murder, but only Leith Sr. stood trial. He was found guilty and the case was appealed to the California Supreme Court. That court cited problems: confusion as to who actually fired the fatal shots, and also criminal intent. The Supreme Court reversed the guilty verdict and remanded for a new trial. A new trial was never held and the case was closed.

On a final note, in 1904, Leith Sr was deemed insane. The court’s examining physician cited Leith suffered from delusions, proclaiming to have murdered three men! Leith died in 1906, at the age of 79, at the Napa State Asylum for the Insane.

Support