For many it is hard phantom that Honey Lake was source for water for major reclamation project on the east side of lake. Yet, it was and a costly endeavor.

One hundred fifteen years ago on this date, dedication ceremonies were held the Standish Water Company’s newly built pumping plant on the shore of Honey Lake. It was  one of those beautiful falls days the region is noted for, set the mood for the inauguration of the pumping plant. During the morning people began arriving from around the Honey Lake Valley to partake in the festivities. Of course, the customary local dignitaries were on hand to provide their accolades. Shortly after noon, the visitors were instructed to assemble along the banks of the main canal to anxiously watch awaited event of pumping water into the canal. At one o’clock the whistle blew from the engine house, and within moments water burst through the pipes to fill the canal.

On the surface it appeared the Company was off to a successful start. In addition, Mother Nature contributed to their efforts, when a snowstorm in January 1911 dumped six feet of snow there! Actually, the weather gods for the next several years were very kind to the east shore residents by providing higher than normal precipitation.

In the Company’s first year 1,000 acres had been planted with sugar beets, with a successful harvest. The following year was a success, too. This changed in 1913, in one of those bureaucratic snafus, as the federal government revoked the canal right-of-way across federal land until California clarified about granting water rights with a lake with no outlet.

To make a long story short, when all was said done by 1917 the area entered into a twenty year drought, and the abandoned pumping plant could no longer be used, due to the lack of water. ln October 1918, there was a scarcity for machinery from the effects of due World War I. At this time, the United States Government seized the pumping plant’s machinery, where it was  dismantled and shipped to San Francisco. From there it shipped to Siberia to generate power.

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This railroad town on the east side of Honey Lake was short-lived. It did have several business partnerships-some remarkable and others not so much.

In the spring of 1892, the boomtown was its peak, there were livery stables. One of these Brubeck & Alexander, and their business arrangement last only one month.

In 1893, the town’s leading merchant, E.C. Brown filed for bankruptcy. L.C. Sexton and Sam Johnstone acquired Brown’s general mercantile store. In 1899, Johnstone bought out Sexton. In 1901, Johnstone and Jacob Hart purchased the Amedee Hotel. In 1903, Hart dissatisfied with Amedee, sold out toJohnstone.

By 1907, Johnstone had enough struggles of doing business at Amedee and he sold Carl Young. Young bought in a partner, George Callahan. Young quickly sold his interest to Callahan and cited that the town was “too dull for him.” Little did Young know that Amedee was on a verge of a revival. The good times would not last and by World War I the town was in a rapid decline.

Tim

Guest registers are unique historical document and they vary, since one size does not fit all. Today, we examine three.

Roop House Register. In 1856, when Isaac Roop established his trading post along the Nobles Emigrant Trail, which would become the foundation of Susanville, he kept a guest book. This allowed emigrants to write freely. Here is an interesting entry: Sunday, August 31, 1856.  “Another Sabbath has passed on the swift pinions of Time and we are a week nearer eternity.  A few more and we shall have passed smoothly down the stream of life and paid debt of nature. How different then will this far famed Elysian Valley appear! What great and stupendous changes will have taken place?  Where now stands Lassen’s log Cabin, a modern pig sty will have been erected and round the sage covered Ranch will be a rail-worn fence, composed of chiefly of piles of brush.  Who among this generation will be able to recognize this valley?  Echo answers “nary a buggar.”

Lassen Peak. In September 1865, Kendall Bumpass guided a party to Mount Lassen at the request of Watson Chalmers, publisher of Red Bluff Independent newspaper. When the Chalmers party scaled the peak, they found a bottle there that was used as an impromptu register. The jar contained various slips of paper left by previous climbers and the Chalmers party added their names to it. Over the years a guest register was placed on the peak for people to memoralize their trek to the summit. Sometimes the register was supplied by the Sierra Club and other times by the Siffords of Drakesbad. Periodically, the park service conducted surveys to see how many people were climbing it. In 1933, for instance, from July 1 to August 18, 24,561 entered the park. Of that number, 3,725 climbed the peak and written their names in the register. Park officials calculated then that 15 of every 100 visitors climbed the lofty peak.

Max’s Mausoleum. This is an obscure site, created during the filming of a major motion picture in the late 1920s. This was common for commercial movies to be filmed here, but that is another story. Max’s was located in a narrow canyon west of Astor Pass, which is between Pyramid Lake and Honey Lake Valley. A small tunnel was carved into the hillside, about seventy-five feet. An alter was installed. After the production ended, a register was placed.  It is my understanding the register was removed in the early 1970s and donated to the Nevada Historical Society.

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