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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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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A week ago, I wrote about the conditions found in the Lassen County Hospital in 1914. I thought I do a brief follow up as to what happened to it. Lassen County and Thomas “Ab”Ramsey did a property exchange wherein the county received thirty acres adjacent to Richmond Road, portion of which would become the home of Roosevelt School, as well. Actually, for a little bit trivia, the school site was designated to become a cemetery but that is another story.
Ramsey rented the hold hospital as a residence and it remained a rental until 1923, when A.H. and Grace Andrews purchased it. In 1927, the W.D. Haws family acquired and made extensive and necessary improvements to the structure. The building was destroyed by a flu fire on January 12, 1933. Little could be done to save the structure as the water pipes were frozen.
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A long time fixture of Westwood was Charlie Monroe and his roller skating rink. Timing plays an important role in many events, being at the right time and right place makes a big difference. In the 1930s, Westwood’s Red River Lumber Company began divesting of assets to lease out operations they had done in the past. It was an effort to economize.
The Westwood Auditorium was built in 1920 at a cost of $20,000, the most expensive Red River public facility to date. It was used for multiple purposes. In 1937, Monroe leased the building from Red River. It was an oral agreement on day to day basis. Through successive ownership of Westwood, that agreement was honored. In the fall of 1976, Greater Westwood, Inc. owners of the property held a public auction, and the roller skating rink was one of them. It sold. After nearly forty years of operation the rink closed.
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Way before the days of refrigeration, one of the annual rituals in the region was the harvesting of ice. As anyone who has lived around these parts for any length time, winter can be finicky. Such was the case in January 1904 when the Susan River was frozen over, the ice being over eight inches think. It was imperative to harvest as much ice as possible before there would be a change in the weather.
Now enter Susanville’s sporting fraternity on a betting proposition in which considerable money was waged. The bet was whether Andy Buchler could cut twenty tons of ice in ten hours. Buchler surprised everyone by sawing twenty-two tons in eight hours!
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The December 1955 floods caused considerable damage to the railroad line between Susanville and Westwood. With the imminent closure of the lumber mill at Westwood, the Southern Pacific Railroad decided to close that segment, rather than spending significant amount of money when freight would decrease. Since they did not abandon the line at that time, if a person wanted to ship something by rail from Susanville to Westwood, or vice versa, Southern Pacific could only charge the freight costs between the two points. It was their problem to figure out how to deliver the freight and bear the additional cost. In 1976, Southern Pacific began the formal process to abandon that segment of the line, which we will explore in the near future.
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If you happen to be in Susanville tomorrow evening, stop by Monsignor Moran Hall on North Weatherlow Street for Sacred Heart Church’s St. Patrick’s Dinner, which they have held every year since 1917. The menu, of course, has evolved over the years. For decades the traditional corned beef and cabbage was never served. In 1974, Father William Storan was appointed the parish priest. In 1975, he requested that corned beef and cabbage be placed on the menu and that the church would slowly phase out spaghetti and roast beef.
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While the Red River Lumber Company was well known for its mammoth sawmill at Westwood, the company generated its own rumor mill. With its extensive timber holdings in a five-county region speculation as to its next move was rampant.
This readily apparent with its logging operation on the east shore of Lake Almanor. By the time its railroad logging line reached Camp 38, halfway down the shoreline, tongues began wagging whether the line would extend into Indian Valley and connect with the railroad line serving Engel Mine. This would then give Red River access to the Western Pacific Railroad. It was a thought that company officials gave considerable thought. While it did not quite transpire it was part of the impetuous for the Western Pacific’s High line that became a reality in 1931.
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In 1970, the Lassen County American Indian Organization held its first annual All Indian Basketball Tournament. In 1976 during the nation’s bicentennial a special championship trophy would be in the memory of Thomas Tucker, a Maidu. Tucker fought in World War I with Company L, 363 Infantry, 91 Division of the U.S. Army. He was killed in action on September 28, 1918 in France. Susanville’s American Legion Post 204 was named in his honor. Oh, and by they way, the Bridgeport Renegades won the tournament by crushing the North State Hawks of Redding, 100 to 53.
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