Category Archives: History

Highway 29

January 19, 2018 Tim Purdy Leave a comment

Highway 36 Fredonyer — The road over Fredonyer as it appeared in 1914.

In the early 1920s, the State of California had the daunting task of plotting out a highway system, and there were plenty of details to be dealt with. Among them, especially for the traveling public, was the designation of highway routes. In the early 1920s, the California Automobile Association led a campaign to give descriptive names of the mountain routes. Highway boosters of the region proclaimed the route between Red Bluff and Susanville, the Lassen Volcanic Highway, since the highway went by the southern entrance of the national park. In time, the State of California began to use a numbering system, and initially proclaimed this route as Number 29. In 1935, it was changed to State Highway Route 36. The change of the number was necessary to reflect the adoption of a uniform system, where even road numbers went to east-west direction and odd ones were for north-south routes.

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History

Lewiston, Lassen County

January 18, 2018 Tim Purdy Leave a comment

Hayden Hill is Lassen County’s best known mining community. However, and especially in the late 1800s, there were numerous mining camps surrounding the hill. One of these was Lewiston. It was a very short-lived mining camp in 1884, that Joseph W. Hayden named after his partner, Seneca Lewis. Of note, both Hayden and Lewis are buried in the Hayden Hill Cemetery.

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History

Shirley’s

January 17, 2018 Tim Purdy Leave a comment

Shirley’s was a bar on the north end of Hall Street, the current site of the Juniper Apartments. Established in the 1930s after the repeal of prohibition, by Jean “Shirley” Tilton, and its distance from town on a road heading to points northward was similar to the roadhouses between Susanville and Westwood. *

It was quite the interesting watering hole, “Shirley” a former nurse, was confined to a wheel chair, but remembered for her generosity. She was also a madam, and cabins behind her establishment took care of certain needs of her clientele. Then there was her friend, gay piano man, and member of Sacred Heart Church’s choir, that assisted her, until he committed suicide in 1938. When she died in 1954, Gene Garayoa and Steve Arainty transformed it into the Juniper Inn.

*Ash Street, was not in existence.

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History

Doyle Post Office

January 16, 2018 Tim Purdy 1 Comment

I realized recently that I have not wrote much about the postal history of the area. Just like the one-room schools that were found throughout the county, the same applies to post offices of another era. It was the construction of the Western Pacific Railroad that was the catalyst for the creation of the town of Doyle. The Doyle Post Office was established on January 29, 1908. However, the region was not without mail service. On December 29, 1869 the Long Valley Post Office was established at the Doyle Ranch, just a short distance south of would later become Doyle, and its first postmaster was John W. Doyle.

History

Eagle Lake – Pelican Point

January 14, 2018 Tim Purdy Leave a comment

United States Government Land Office survey map.

There are times when I am doing research I get sidetracked. In a particular instance recently resulted in an interesting revelation concerning Pelican Point at Eagle Lake. For a long time the point did not exist, though there was a Pelican Island of sorts. As you can see the above of the Government Land Office survey map of 1875, there is no Pelican Point. At that time the lake level as 5109. In 1917 began the twenty-year drought, combined with the Bly Tunnel, the lake level dropped dramatically, which resulted in the exposure of Pelican Point for the first time since Anglo settlement.

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History

John A. Hanson, Photographer

January 13, 2018 Tim Purdy Leave a comment

Hanson’s standard advertisement. Courtesy of Verna L. Haley

The itinerant professional photographer of the late 1800s was an interesting creature in the rural areas such as Lassen. Many were single young men. After all, one would have to ride “circuit.” Susanville at that time, with a population base of less than 500, it could not sustain a full time photography studio. They would travel to neighboring communities in search of business. After a few years, they would move to a new territory.

John Hanson came to Susanville and initially opened his photography studio in a tent. With that type of mobility, it appeared Hanson was just traveling through town. Yet, Hanson found romance in Susanville with a young lady, by the name of Fannie Streshley, who operated a millenery store a block from Hanson’s tent. The relationship turned serious and the two were married on October 31, 1883. The couple made Susanville their home until 1886, when they moved onto unknown greener pastures.

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History

Red River’s Snow Roller

January 12, 2018 Tim Purdy Leave a comment

On January 2, 1916, it began to snow, and snow and snow for nearly three weeks. At Westwood it was reported that they fourteen feet of snow. Resident Manager, Fletcher Walker called it a “blue snow.” From this particular snowstorm, standard snow removal techniques of Westwood streets were no match to combat the deep snow. Someone came up with ingenuous idea to build a snow roller to compact the snow. The Westwood correspondent to the “Lassen Weekly Mail,” observed, “The immense snow roller is in successful operation on the streets. It leaves a compressed trail wide enough for teams to pass. Eight to twelve horses have been used to haul it through the streets and the affair makes an interesting ensemble.”

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History

Dodgeville – Lassen County

January 11, 2018 Tim Purdy 1 Comment

Ward Lake, October 26, 1969. Photo by D.B. Martin

This was the name of the construction camp of the Balls Canyon Reservoir Company. Established in 1889, when construction of a dam across the lower end of Secret Creek, near Belfast, to capture the spring floodwaters to create Ward Lake. It was named for Edmund R. Dodge was the President of the Company. Dodge, it should be noted wrote the Lassen County segment of Farris & Smith Illustrated History of Plumas, Lassen and Sierra Counties, 1882, among other things.

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History

Bonham School

January 10, 2018 Tim Purdy Leave a comment

Flanigan, 1976, courtesy of Christopher Moody

Established in 1887, it was originally located at the Bonham Ranch in the Smoke Creek Desert. The school closed in 1919 for lack of students. In 1929, it was resurrected at Flanigan in the Honey Lake Valley. It closed on June 20, 1969 and at that time it was the only remaining one-room school in Washoe County. Standish resident Ed Bass purchased the school and moved to his property.

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History

The Two M’s

January 9, 2018 Tim Purdy Leave a comment

Janesvlle Methodist Church, 1911. Courtesy of Marge Foster

From the early 1860s up until World War II the two dominant social institutions locally were the Masons and the Methodist, which were hand in hand. The majority of the Masons were Methodist, and vice versa. By the early 1900s the Methodist were so predominant in the Honey Lake Valley that they had churches at Janesville, Johnstonville, Standish and of course Susanville. The Masons on the other hand had lodges at Janesville and Susanville, which have since been combined.

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