September 1st is opening of dove season around these parts  it marks the official start of hunting season. By 1900, the farmers/ranchers in the Standish/Tule District routinely advertised in the local papers that no trespassing would be tolerated during bird season.  This resulted in evolution of local gun (hunting) clubs. It was beneficial for the property owner and the hunter. Through a club the hunter gained access to and in exchange patrol the lands as a deterrent to trespassers.

Since these were private affairs, some formal and others informal, there is a lack of information about them.  I know this well, since I managed the Ring Neck Club for Tanner Ranch for nearly forty years.This club was established in the 1940s. As my grandmother Lola Tanner only cooked on a Home Comfort stove, which supplied her hot water, the gun club furnished her wood supply for their hunting privileges.

Tim

This was a very short-lived timber company that had lots of potential, but the timing was not quite right.With the arrival of the Fernley & Lassen Railroad provided many opportunities as it provided a transportation conduit that had not been in existence.

The Western Timber Treating was a Sacramento based operation. It was their intention to harvest lodgepole pine and treat it with creosote (a tar based oil), as it made for a superior pole. Cedar had been pole of choice, but the supply of it  became more difficult to obtain due to depletion from harvesting. The firm figured that with modernization taking place, i.e., electrical and telephone services, there would be a great demand for its probuct.

The company negotiated a ten year lease with the Lassen National Forest for two million board feet of lodgepole pine. The company would pay the Forest Service half a cent per lineal foot. This timber was located eighteen miles west of Susanville, and adjacent to the Fernely & Lassen Railroad.

In 1913, the company went to the residents of Susanville for support in their venture-first with stock options. As an incentive to the sale of stock locally, it offered to create Board of Director seats to be filled by Susanville residents. But the sale of stock was minimal, and no plant was constructed. No one from Susanville was appointed to the Board.

In October 1913, the company established a logging camp approximately eighteen miles west of Susanville. This camp employed 25 people. It was the firm’s intention to operate six additional camps in 1914. The company continued with logging operations through the 1915 season.

There were problems on horizon. The first it encountered was the shortage of creosote. At the time, the majority of of the supply of creosote came from Europe, which was now engaged  in war. There were financial difficulties as well. By 1916, court judgements against the company had been rendered. The final outcome resulted with the take over by the Burton-Cotton Lumber Company of Salt Lake City. One of the principals in that company was C.E. Cotton, an important figure of the formation of the Lassen Lumber & Box Company.

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The Susanville Logging Company formed in 1941, was the last large lumber mill to be built in the Susanville area. The mill was located on Johnstonville Road. In 1958 it underwent a major ownership, that’did not last long. In the mid=1960s it became known as Coin Lumber and in turn would later became Jeld-Wen when it closed 1993.

Tim

Note: This photograph is featured in the September 2026 Calendar.

In 1890, Honey Lake Valley resident invented a new yew type of windmill. In 1891, he went t check out the new NCO railroad town called Amedee on the east side of Honey Lake. It was a bustling in activity and promoters stated that was tip of iceberg of things to come. With that promising of prosperous time, he decided to became an entrepreneur and established a saloon near the hot springs. It should be noted the hot springs offered unique facet-a small geyser, Lane devised a clocked to measure time of the spurts from the geyser. The geyser rose and fell at intervals of 38 second and on occasions the water would shoot up as high as eight feet. The natural wonder disappeared in May 1893, when the ground around the hot springs cracked open, allowing the steam to escape before the eruption.  Of the many hats Lane wore, he became the justice of peace for the town and surrounding area.

By the late 1893 the boomtown era of Amedee had peaked, and Lane like so many others made his departure in search of the proverbial greener pastures.

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