Category Archives: History

History

Milwood and the Annexation Issue

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L.D. McDow Residence. Courtesy of George McDow, Jr.

It would take nearly a half century for Susanville, as a municipality, before it was able to expand its boundaries. Of course, politics played a pivotal role and the city’s most formible opponet was the Red River Lumber Company which owned the Milwood Tract east of the city limits.

Annexation efforts tried and failed with Red River’s influence. In the summer of 1928, the residence of J.A. Metz, who lived in the original McDow home in the Milwood Tract was destroyed by fire. Since it was outside the city limits there was no fire protection in Milwood and adjoining subdivisions. The fire prompted a petition drive for annexation. It was met with opposition and they were able to stop the movement in its tracts.

In 1930, an annexation campaign was resurrected. A committee was appointed to investigate the many issues and report back to a public meeting scheduled for March 10. It was decided to take a poll in the Halltown and Milwood Districts to obtain the residents’ pulse on the measure. For the proponents it was not good news. The initial poll showed 156 against annexation to 47 for it. End of discussion and remained that way for nearly a decade.

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History

Milwood Tract-Susanville

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1938 Advertisement from the Lassen Mail

During the 1910s, real estate developers went through a crazy period putting together subdivisions adjacent to Susanville with the anticipation of a major “boom” once the railroad arrived. For a brief time it subsided, but went crazy again when it was announced the Fruit Growers Supply Company was to build a substantial lumber manufacturing adjacent to Susanville.

Enter George McDow, owner of the local title company, Lassen Abstract, and his best friend, Russell Brownell, the latter known for his salesman skills. Having inside knowledge they acquired property on the north side of the Susan River of the proposed Fruit Growers millsite. They created the Milwood Tract subdivision, that adjoined Halltown. This subdivision extended Second, Third and Fourth Streets. It also created the streets of River, Sacramento, Spring, Fairfield, Mesa and Gilman. The developers designated the east end as Milwood Farms. They were made 34 two-acre lots for those who desired extra room to raise chickens, plant gardens and the like. Two streets were created, but never named until later. One became known as Russell Avenue, after Russell Brownell, who died unexpectedly in 1923. The other became Fair Drive, since it would be the main thoroughfare to the fairgrounds that were built in 1922, adjacent to Milwood Farms.

Things did not go according as plan. In September 1922, they sold 260 acres of the tract to the Red River Lumber Company, who bought as speculative property as a future millsite. That transaction had a major impact on the history of Susanville, which we will explore tomorrow.

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History

It’s official, Chester made into a town

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Chester, California, 1914. Courtesy of Dolores Gasperoni

By 1911, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that shortly the Great Western Power Company would transform what was known as Big Meadows into Lake Almanor. The area had been undergoing a major transformation when the power company purchased many of the ranches and resorts that would be submerged once the dam was built.

At the northern end of Big Meadows, the Olsen family were on the fringe and while they sold the majority of their ranch to Great Western they still retained the property around their home. Their neighbor, Edith Martin had witnessed a large amount of campers at her place with the demise of the town of Prattville. In August 1911 Edith Martin and the Olsens hired Everett M. Cameron to survey and subdivide their respective properties, thus officially forming the town of Chester.

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History

Where are we—Camp Harvey

Camp Harvey, July 11, 2019

In 1943, the Red River Lumber Company established this logging camp, nineteen miles east of Camp Bunyan on the north slope of Harvey Mountain. In 1944, the Red River sold it to the Fruit Growers Supply Company.  

The cookhouse operations at logging camps operated at a substantial loss for the company.  However, the food served in the logging camps played a pivotal role.  Poorly fed loggers would move to a different logging company, and thereby impact the former company’s production.  In 1948, Fruit Growers experimented at Camp Harvey by raising the price of a meal to one dollar.  Complaints were loud and long.  But now, instead of losing thirty-six cents per meal, they now lost only eight cents.  The result was substantial and at the end of the year, Fruit Growers’ operating losses for the cookhouses at Camps Harvey and Stanford was $63,500.

On May 2, 1949, Camps Harvey and Stanford opened for another season.  In an effort to further reduce the cookhouse expenses, Fruit Growers leased them along with the commissaries, to H.S. Anderson Company for one dollar.  Fruit Growers thought perhaps an outside company could handle the meals more efficiently.  They would never find out the answer.

 Just three weeks into the logging season all operations on the Harvey line shut down.  The cookhouse crews, represented by Local 768 of the Bartenders and Culinary Workers Union, walked off the job in a wage and hour dispute with H.S. Anderson Company.  As the weeks passed with no end of the strike in sight, Fruit Growers closed down Camp Harvey and Stanford permanently, as well as its Harvey railroad logging line.

Harvey Cookhouse
Camp Harvey Cookhouse, 1947

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History

Lassen Lumber & Box Company

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Lassen Lumber & Box Company’s mill under construction, 1918

In the spring of 1918, construction began on Lassen Lumber & Box Company’s mill on Alexander Avenue. The project was done in two phases. First there was the “small mill” officially desginated as Mill No. 2. This mill was placed into operation on August 1, 1918. The first plank was put on display at the Susanville Post Office. It was not anticipated that the “large mill” also known as Mill No. 1 be put into operation until early 1919. This was due to labor shortages and the difficulty in obtaining machinery due to World War I.

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History

The Jaysee

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From the Caravan, Lassen College Yearbook, 1940

This was the name of Lassen College’s first student newspaper. How it came to be was pure accident, as it was not planned. In September 1939 the college offered a Creative Writing course. It was a venue for students to practice writing news article and general composition.

At the beginning of the second semester the class published a mimeographed newspaper, the “Jaysee.” By February the paper came out on a weekly basis. There was no assigned editor. Instead to give everyone an opportunity for a hands on approach, each week everyone rotated assignments.

The initial paper was financed by selling candy bars at the basketball games. In April it was deemed necessary that it would need an advertising department to finance future issues.

Fast forward to the Spring of 2019 and a new online student newspaper is now published at Lassen College known as “The Paw.”

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History, News

Lassen County Courthouse Rehabilitation Project

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Lassen County Courthouse, spring 1917. Courtesy of Elberta M. Fraley

If you happen to stop by the Lassen County Courthouse you might be in a big surprise. The offices are in the process to be vacated from the building while it is being overhauled. The County Clerk/Recorder and the Treasurer/Tax Collector are to be moved to the ground floor of the annex behind the courthouse, while the Assessor is a block away at the corner of Roop and Cottage Streets.

Of course an item of interest, is will the two large Boston ferns in the lobby survive the transition? Years ago, I spoke with former Lassen County Clerk Nadene Wemple about the ferns. After all, she was well versed in the building’s history. It should be noted her family had a dynasty on the clerk’s office, her father George Tomb was county clerk and so was her mother Maude Tombs. Nadene could not recall what the original plants were the graced the left and right stair wells. It was not until the early 1920s, that the Boston ferns were planted and have thrived all these years later, with many years receiving almost no care at all.

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History

Arnold Planing Mill

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Arnold Planing Mill, circa 1905. Courtesy of Philip S. Hall

For many years the Arnold Planing mill located adjacent to the Richmond Bridge, Susanville, was one of the most photographed sites.

It was built in June 1873 by L.J. Abel and George Barley. This, like the other mills in the era, was powered by water. They constructed a ditch and flume about a quarter-mile upstream on the Susan River from the mill. It became known as the Arnold Ditch, and while it no longer conveys water, it is still used as a reference point to determine property boundaries. The mill primarily manufactured doors, sash, blinds, furniture stock, cornices and other related items.

In 1877, Abel & Barley sold the mill to Ezra P. Soule for $1,526.15. In that same year, Ezra’s daughter married Leroy D. Arnold. Shortly thereafter, Leroy operated the mill. In 1912, he retired and his son, Ezra Arnold took over operations.

On August 6, 1914, at approximately two in the morning, the residents of Susanville were awakened from their slumber by the alarm of fire. The Arnold mill had caught fire, and little could be done to save it. It was severe blow to the younger Arnold, his loss estimated at $10,000 was not covered by insurance. It was believed that a hobo had camped there for night, built a small fire to prepare a mill, but never fully extinguished it.

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History

Moon Valley, Lassen County

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Moon Valley
Cover of the Moon Valley brochure

In 1968, the Occidental Petroleum Company purchased a large portion of the lands owned by the Rees T. Jenkins Land & Livestock Company. On the west side of the Madeline Plains, they subdivided thousands of acres into 20-acre parcels they named Moon Valley Ranch. The first unit was recorded on July 12, 1968. The Company’s advertising of the region made it too good to be true. “Now you get it all at Moon Valley Ranch: prime recreation land, within 4 miles of a 2,500 acre lake, in Northern California, the next recreational capital of the West and profitable investment property almost certain to appreciate as California’s recreation-hungry population continues to explode . . .And what a price now you can buy 20-acre parcels for less than $199 an acre–$150 down, $29 monthly.” Their portfolio expands on all the nearby wonderful recreational areas, such as skiing and golfing at Westwood, though they did not mention that Westwood was some seventy miles away. Also they did not disclose the fact that the golf course at Westwood was only proposed. The Company was correct in their advertisement that is was “The magnificent, away-from-it-all Moon Valley Ranch” to “land-that-time-forgot.”  Moon Valley Ranch is a perfect example why there are disclosure laws in the real estate industry today. Numerous folks still invest in that property, purchasing parcels site unseen, only to realize that they bought a lot on a sagebrush plain or a rocky hillside covered with juniper trees.

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History

Pioneer Mercantile Company

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Pio advt.
A 1920s advertisement for the Pioneer. It had to change its ways during prohibition.

In 1920, Grass Valley business man W.H. Tuttle purchased the Pioneer Saloon, Susanville’s oldest business. For many this was something a deranged person might do, since the nation’s prohibition of alcohol had just been implemented. Not only that, Tuttle announced he was going to replace the old wooden structure with a two-story concrete one.

To make up for the lost revenue from the sale of alcoholic beverages Tuttle branched out into the wholesale mercantile trade. In a very short time this enterprise turned out to be very lucrative, he specialized as a distributor of tobacco products and candy. In 1929, he sold the Pioneer Mercantile Company to John Solari and M.A. Griffin. After the repeal of prohibition the mercantile aspect continued until the late 1970s.

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