Today, Buntingville, a few miles south of Janesville, is just a mere wide spot in the road. Yet, back in the day it was strategically located at the intersection of the Alturas and Reno Stage Road. Today, it is part of the focal point of the cut-off of Highway 395 from Buntingville to Standish, i.e. County A-3, for those traveling north or vice versa.
In the early 1870s, Alexander J. Bunting (1836-1903) located there and operated a stage station to accommodate travelers. Bunting only had a squatters claim to the land that he occupied. In 1883, Bunting moved to Lake County, Oregon, where he spent the remainder of his life. In 1878, Edward A.Weed, editor of the Lassen Advocate, while visiting Buntingville, humorously suggested that the name be changed to Catville, “There being more cats and kittens to the square rod than any other place we visited.” In the late 1870s and early 1880s Buntingville flourished, and gave serious competition to its rival Janesville. Serious debate was held as to where to build a new flour mill for the region—Buntingville or Janesville? In 1882, Janesville became the victor. While Buntingville lost out on the flourmill proposal, it continued to thrive for some time. In 1900, the small community could boast of its own newspaper, the Buntingville Breeze. The paper was short-lived, for after two months, its editor and publisher, Mike Phillips, who also operated the town’s general store, moved his enterprises to Standish.
Buntingville’s claim to fame, that it was the headquarters for the Honey Lake Valley’s first telephone company. On July 10, 1911, the Honey Lake Valley Mutual Telephone Association incorporated as a co-operative. In 1924, the group had over 200 subscribers from Standish, Janesville, Milford, and Richmond. Plagued with financial problems, it was taken over by the Lassen Telephone Company on July 21, 1924.
