This is a portal midway through Bly Tunnel near Eagle Lake. The fenced off enclosure is easily seen from the road going up to the Eagle Lake Youth Camp. There are still numerous ditches, cement diversions of the canal system, extending all the way to the Sunnyside District near Janesville to past Wendel in another direction from the failed Tule & Baxter Creek Irrigation District’s Bly Tunnel project.
In 1925, Fruit Growers Supply Company at its Lassen (Susanville) operation were always looking at innovative ways for efficiency and reduce labor costs at the same time. This year, they installed a Hilke Lumber Piler, the contraption had been invented in 1915 by Seattleite Henry Hilke. The piler was a very efficient means of stacking lumber outdoors. Not only did it reduce the aisle width for stacking of conventional lumber, but the machine allowed to make higher stacks. While a four man crew was involved, the piler could handle up to 10,000 board feet per hour. As one local observer noted: “To those who had never seen the new stacker in action, it is a most interesting and educational sight.”
Earlier this month the topic of Lassen Boulevard was discussed, i.e., the forerunner of Highway 395 between Susanville and the Nevada State Line. In 1924, Nevada officials had paved the route north of Reno to the stateline. Lassen County Board of Supervisors were anxious to make more road improvements on the California side. After all, they had already mounted a campaign declaring Susanville the eastern gateway entrance to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Before long, Susanville would host the state American Legion Convention, so good roads were essential.
On July 8, 1925 the Lassen County Board of Supervisors approved $5,000 to make road improvements on the highway segment between Constantia and Purdy (stateline). It was their intent that the State Highway Commission would match the county’s expenditure. They did. However, it would be many years before the highway was paved and redesignated as 395.
For some reason I have been stuck in a Secret Valley mode of thought, with Biscar Reservoir and Petroglyph Humor. For those not familiar, Secret Valley is a long straight stretch along Highway 395 North, approximately thirty miles from Susanville.
Like so many places throughout the region, in a bygone era, lively times were had there. In addition, like so many rural outposts it had its own school district, that was established in 1890. Rural schools then, were not confined to a strict schedule that occurs today. The Secret Valley School during the 1920s and 1930s operated during the summer months and was closed from November to February. The school closed in 1938. The last graduating class consisted of Emelia Diaz and Ida Nye. In 1940, the school was annexed to Soldier Bridge, known today as Shaffer.
On a footnote, this is one of handful of Lassen County schools that I do not possess a photograph of. The late Faye Laver, thought she possessed one, but could never find it.
In 1933, Lassen County residents and their counterparts throughout the Golden State witnessed something in their shopping routine. California had instituted a sales tax. This, of course, saw an increase of pennies in circulation. As matter of fact, Charlie Bridges, then assistant manager of the local Bank of America, that in August 1933, 1,000 pennies every day were put in circulation in Susanville for a period of ten days. Bridges speculated that some of these pennies were going into piggy banks of local children.
It is amazing by doing these daily posts, I am always learning something new. New discoveries sometimes arrive in mysterious ways. In a discussion about future walks and hikes I was provided the latest map of the region distributed by the Lassen County Chamber of Commerce. It should be noted I am map affeciando, so no GPS stuff for me. Anyhow, back to the story at hand. According to this, which you can see from the above illustration, that Willow Creek’s origins is Eagle Lake, and not from the springs at Murrer’s Upper Ranch.
In a discussion with USGS in 2017, that prior to some 125,000 years ago, Pine Creek and Willow Creek were probably just the same stream. Once the Brockman Flat Lava Beds occured it blocked the flow of Pine Creek to Willow Creek. In doing so, it helped create the Eagle Lake that we know today.
While sifting through papers in search of something, I came across this interesting tid bit from the Lassen Mail of March 13, 1936.
”CCC workers in the Secret Valley camp are wondering this week if they have discovered ancient Indian inscriptions or merely run across the work of some amateur cartoonist who was whiling away his time with little stone hatchet.
”An aged Indian revealed several inscriptions to camp workers, carved in rocks in the vicinity of the CCC camp claiming that said marks are relics of the dim and distant past. Photographs were taken of the inscriptions and are now in the possession of the foreman of the camp.
”If the negatives turn out to be replicas of Mickey Mouse, it is generally believed that the ancient Indian’s stock will drop several points.”
P.S. – Those interested in petroglyphs will not want to miss out the annual Summer Solstice Sunrise Tour.
In July 1925, one of the more unusual railroad logging accidents occurred near Lassen Lumber & Box Company’s Camp Lasco (located on the north side of Peg Leg Mountain). A railroad tracklaying machine had just departed camp when it jumped the tracks, turning over and spreading rails in its path. Eight men were injured, all of whom were transported to Susanville’s Riverside Hospital for treatment.
Cheers to those creative types who who think outside of the proverbial box. In 1925-26, the Great Western Power Company, forerunner to PG&E constructed a reservoir at Butt Valley to the west of Lake Almanor, expanding its hydroelectric system. When Great Western constructed Lake Almanor in 1914, it had entered into a contract with the Red River Lumber Company to log and remove trees from the reservoir site. A similar arrangement was done for Butt Valley.
Red River abandoned its traditional logging methods for this project. By January 1926 Red River had felled 16 million board feet of timber in Butt Valley, and now waited for the spring run off to fill the newly created reservoir. To retrieve the logs, Red River built a huge raft to float a steam donkey engine to do the job. As an observer remarked of the “ocean liner,” that contained 61,000 board feet of logs bound together by cables, that after it served its usefulness, it was dismantled and the logs milled.
This topic falls along the same line as that of the Gables. Unlike the Gables, the Maryland Hotel is a thing of the past. The Maryland was located at 135 South Lassen Street. Its name rather misleading, not quite a hotel, but not quite a boarding house either. However, during its tenure it served the community well. When the lumber mills were the predominate industry in Susanville, a large number of single men, either worked in the mills or in the woods. It should be noted the lumber companies sought to hire married men with families, as it was deemed they were more stable, unlike single men who went from one operation to another seeking the proverbial greener pastures. Of note, the Maryland had a maximum double occupancy of 60. In 1983, the property was acquired by the nearby mortuary who tore down structure to make additional parking.