Subscribe!
Category Archives: History
St. Patrick’s Dinner, 1976
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.
Donate!
Red River’s Rumor Mill
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.
Subscribe!
All Indian Basketball Tournament
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.
Subscribe!
Honey Lake Dumping Grounds
There have been a lot of things proposed for the Honey Lake Valley, some good and some well not so desirable. In the late 1960s, the City of San Francisco chose the Honey Lake Valley as ideal place to send their garbage. One reasons why Honey Lake Valley was that the garbage could shipped by rail making it economical.
Of course the locals were not amused and opposition mounted. The debate lasted nearly a decade. In letter to Lassen Advocate’s Open Forum, an incensed Milford resident, Audrey Stevens wrote:
”Lassen County should be declared a disaster area with every citizen joining in a mass to protest the greedy senseless plan to buy 4,500 acres of land east of Herlong for $100,000 (our money) to be used as a dumping ground for San Francisco garbage, which includes rats, disease, smell and ugliness for as long as this earth survives.”
Subscribe.
Hayden Hill Update
A reader asked about the current status of Hayden Hill. When Lassen Gold shut down in 1997, they began their reclamation process. As a member of the Lassen County Planning Commission we are briefed from time to time as to the status. It should be duly noted that the Lassen County Planning Department is the lead agency in the reclamation process. It should also be duly noted that there is no public access to the site and the property is fenced.
Subscribe!
Lassen County Hospital, 1914
Just as there was a movement in the early 1900s to build a new courthouse, the same issue was applied to the Lassen County Hospital. The two-story, twelve-room facility was built in 1883 for $620. It was located next to the Susan River and far enough away from the town proper should a quarantine be necessary.
In essence over time the hospital devolved into a poor folks home. In the campaign to build a new hospital the Lassen Weekly Mail reported the following conditions of the facility in 1914: “The operating room is on the first floor—at least they call it an operating room. It must make a doctor’s hair stand on end every time he enters it. Septicemia stares a surgeon in the face every time he performs even a minor operation. When your mind thinks of a operating room of a hospital the picture presented to the mind is an airy room with tiled floors, enameled walls and ceiling and every facility for cleanliness, but if you have any such picture in your mind when you visit the operating room of the Lassen County Hospital it will be rudely shattered. The room is small, has a wooden floor and the walls are papered the ceiling an ordinary wooden ceiling. The operating table is an improvised one and of course lacks all conveniences which a surgeon should have in order to do good work. The room is kept clean as possible, but you speak of cleanliness in the operating room of a hospital it does not mean the mere absence of dirt visible to the naked eye. It means that every possibility of germs or any foreign matter that could by any possibility infect the patient are removed. In no possible way could the operating room at the Lassen County Hospital be put in condition that a surgeon would even consider safe.” The following year the voters approved a bond measure for a new courthouse and hospital.
Subscribe!
A Negative Question In A Good Way
Every day is a new learning process and some times I grasp what is in front of me, other times it just takes a bit longer to learn something new. One of my quandaries for some time is the scanning of old photograph negatives. I mean old, not your typical 35mm or 2 1/4x 21/4. These negatives are 6 inches by 3 inches, plus some other sizes, from the 1910s and 1920s.
I have thousands of negatives from that time period. For example I have nearly 1,000 negatives of professional photographer O.O. Winn taken from 1920 to 1923 of the construction and initial operations of the Fruit Growers Supply Company. I have hundreds of Lola L. Tanner’s negatives from 1915-1925 of Eagle Lake and Willow Creek Valley. Recently, Richard Goudy of Chico asked for assistance with his family photographs of the time era mentioned that are of the Milford and Westwood areas.
My question is does any one have any experience with this, or know some one that has?
Thanks.
Blast from the past
At the Susanville City Council’s organizational meeting on March 9, 1976, Jim Chapman, at the tender age of 21, was made the Mayor of Susanville, the youngest person ever to hold that title. Chapman had aspirations that year and ran for Lassen County District Two Supervisor and won that seat in November.
It should be duly noted the city’s organizational meeting then was ceremonial, but not this time. The council rolled up their sleeves and went to work on the pressing issue of the day concerning the grandstand at Memorial Park.
Subscribe!
Phil’s Place Revisited
In 1976, Betty Pannell was the Westwood correspondent to the Lassen Advocate. She had a special feature entitled Yesteryear. The following is an excerpt of her interview with Lydia Schuldies, who with her husband operated a restaurant, bar, dancing floor and service station on Highway 36, near Goodrich Creek. Lydia recalls their place was not the only activity there, and now all that remains is the lone chimney.
“With the war and the advent of food stamps Lydia really had her hands full to run the restaurant at Phil’s. To arrange the menus as best as she could and for as long as possible. Then, when the food ran out, to close until she had more stamps. Lydia said she always tried to hire back the employees that had to be let off during these forced closures.
“There were many more buildings along the highway—next to Phil’s was a rooming house for the men working out there. Next to it an ice house with walls yay thick filled with sawdust for insulation to keep the ice. And back between the highway and Moonlight road was the airport. (This is where Cub Walker, one of Fletcher Walker’s son was killed in a plane accident.) On back in a beautiful spot on the meadow was the Home Ranch and during World War II when Victory—or vegetable gardens—were encouraged the Walkers set aside a good sized area for anyone to put in their own vegetables and the Walkers had a man to water it. Directly across the highway from Phil’s were the small house is, well that was the mess hall for the men. And there were was a dairy farm with big barns and the milk brought into Westwood by horse and wagon and sleigh.”
Subscribe!