Category Archives: History

History

Riverside Park, Susanville

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Story Club, 1924. Courtesy of Lola L. Tanner

The background behind Riverside Park is unique. Prior to the park’s creation, it was home to the Fruit Growers Supply Company’s Story Club, a recreational center for its employees. It was destroyed by fire in 1944. Instead of replacing the structure, Fruit Growers converted the parcel into a park for its employees, and the public, too.

In 1963, Fruit Growers sold its mill properties, which included the park, to Eagle Lake Lumber Company. The City of Susanville, it should be noted took care of the park’s maintenance.  In 1976, A.A. “Red” Emerson, president of Sierra Pacific Industries, of which the Eagle Lumber Company was a division, offered the park to the City for $23,000. It had recently been appraised at $45,000. The City accepted the offer and by end of the year the deal consummated.

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History

Susanville Water Works

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An expensive water bill for the time.

Initially, Susanville’s water supply came from Piute Creek and wells. In 1864, Luther Spencer claimed Big Springs (Cady) three miles west of town in the Susan River Canyon for a water supply for the community. Spencer’s good intentions never came to fruition.

In 1869, a group of Susanville residents formed the Susanville Water Works with the same proposal as Spencer. Their first priority was to survey a ditch, which they did. Then they went to the community to raise funds for the construction of the ditch and found none. Finally, with due diligence in 1872 construction began on the ditch. It was a modest effort fraught with problems, but it functioned without much change for the remainder of that century.

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History

Fort Sage School District

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The Calneva Branch of the Lassen County Free Library, 1920.

In January 1915, the residents of Calneva, a Western Pacific Railroad station in eastern Honey Lake Valley desired the break away from the Fairview School District and form their own. In their petition, they stated nineteen scholars resided in the proposed district. Their request was granted on February 2, 1915 by the Lassen County Board of Supervisors. The new district was named Fort Sage. The school was located in a small one-room building on the Harry Hill homestead. It was later moved to the Aldrich House, a larger building, located in the center of the district. In the summer of 1918, the school was on the verge of being suspended, as enrollment declined to four. The trustees persuaded County Superintendent of Schools, Julia A. Norwood, to keep the school open, as they promised an additional four students would attend in September. The request was granted. The school’s existence was brief and it was closed in 1924. In 1926, the furniture from the school was purchased by the Janesville School District.

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History

Election Season

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Lassen County Courthouse, 1938

Now that election season is in full swing, there was a movement in 1930 to reduce the number of elected officials. Los Angeles County took the lead which officials stated that Sacramento had so much control over counties that there was no longer a need to have so many county elected officials. They proposed besides the supervisors, the only elected officials would be the assessor, district attorney and sheriff.  All other positions would be appointed by the supervisors. Lassen County opposed it.

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History

815 Cottage Street, Susanville

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815 Cottage Street, Susanville, circa 1925.

This house was built in 1893, as a wedding present. Susanville merchant Alfred Jackson had it constructed for his bride-to-be Rose Murrer. In the stone mantle he had the letter “R” carved into it. Unfortunately, their happy marriage was cut short, when he died in a deer hunting accident in 1895. In 1914, when Rose’s mother, Franceska Neuhaus constructed the St. Francis Hotel behind her home, she planted an elaborate flower garden for guests of the hotel to enjoy. Rose remained at her home until the early 1940s, when she moved to Reno, to reside with her only child Leona Byars.

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815 Cottage Street, Susanville, February 3, 2018
History

The Holden Dick Mine

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Published in 1976, I never purchased a copy.

Throughout the American West most every region has some sordid lost gold mine tale, and the region around here is of no exception. Of course, over the years the story takes on a life of its own. Holden Dick was a Pitt River Indian who in 1885 was tried for the gruesome murder of Samuel Shaw on the Madeline Plains. Some attribute that it was not actually a mine, but loot from a freight wagon loaded with gold that was robbed when it traveled through Modoc County. Whether Holden Dick was perpetrator is not clear. Whatever the case may be, the gold was hidden in a cave in the South Warner Mountains. Anyhow, from time to time, Holden Dick would show up in the streets of Alturas and Susanville with gold. Where it came from he never said, and he took his secret to grave when he was lynched in 1886. To add more intrigue there is his lost map. Some sources indicate Holden Dick had a map where his bounty was located and he gave it to defense attorneys, Ephraim Spencer and John Raker. What became of the map is pure speculation. The bottom line, to this day, there are people still looking for the elusive mine.

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History

Eagle Lake Architecture

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Eagle Lake’s own Hobbit House, 1921.

It is always fascinating what one may come across in the most unexpected places. A lava cave near BlyTunnel was converted into a dwelling of sorts by construction workers at the tunnel, and then abandoned after activity ceased there. Jim Martin, a travel writer for the Sacramento Bee did a feature article on Eagle Lake in 1968 and made mention of this unique residence  and wrote: “But before you get there, you will notice a metal tank on your left. If you park there, you will find a trail nearby. By following this trail you will come upon a lava cave which has been converted into living quarters. It looks like a place for gnomes or some characters from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. It once was used by construction workers and goodness knows who else. It is deserted now.”

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History

Amedee Lime Kilns

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Amedee Lime Kiln
Amedee Lime Kiln, 1975
Amedee Lime Kiln, February 15, 2018

In the early 1890s, when the railroad town of Amedee came into prominence, led to many interesting developments. One of these was the discovery of lime deposits, then a key ingredient used in cement. In 1893, a lime kiln was constructed on the hillside above Amedee. However, due to the nation’s economic depression and the NCO Railroad’s refusal to lower freight rates the enterprise abandoned.

In 1913, with another railroad at Amedee and a surging economy, Susanville businessmen fired up the abandoned lime kilns. After over a year in operation, this they discovered was not the most prudent business investment, and once again the kilns were abandoned.

If you don’t succeed the first time, try again and again. In the 1920s, Janesville resident William B. Hail operated the lime kilns. In 1927, he used the lime for construction of the Bigelow Apartments in Susanville. After that it they were finally abandoned once and for all. Hail stated it was due to the poor quality of the lime.

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History

Where are we, the answer

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Skedaddle Dam, 1992. Courtesy of Ginger Martinez

Skedaddle Creek. In the fall of 1889 construction began on 140 foot tall dam. Little did any one know that the winter of 1889-90 would be one of the most severe on record. By the end of January 1890 it was estimated that were over ten feet of snow on the higher slopes of Skedaddle. In February a warm storm hit, melting the snow and with it a wall of water one hundred feet wide and ten feet deep. It was the first of a series of storms, that eventually caused the dam to collapse.

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History

Secret Valley Munitions Depot?

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Secret Valley, as seen from the lower end of the valley.

In the mid-1920s the U.S. government sought to establish a munitions depot in the west. The two main criteria, that it be a sparsely populated region and have railroad access. In 1927,the Lassen County Chamber of Commerce, along with the Lassen County Board of Supervisors petitioned Congressman Harry Engelbright to consider Secret Valley. It had rail access and only five families lived within thirteen miles of the proposed site. In the end the government selected Hawthorne, Nevada.

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