Category Archives: History

History

Smoke Trees Revisited

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October 25, 2017
Earlier this year I wrote about Smoke Trees and how the foliage changes with the seasons. In the spring it has a pinkish hue and then turns green for the summer. It is now fall and changes color for a third time—gold.

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A Smoke Tree on Roop Street, Susanville.

History

The other Washington School

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Washington School, 1916–D.M. Durst Collection
While many residents of the Honey Lake Valley were familiar with Washington School in Susanville, there was another Washington School in Big Valley that was established in March 1872. On Wednesday, November 12, 1887, the first school was destroyed by fire. The roof caught on fire from a defective flue while school was in session. The fire was not discovered until burning embers started to fall through the ceiling. Fortunately, no one was injured during the evacuation. In addition, everything was saved except for five desks, and, of course, the wood stove. After the fire, classes were temporarily held in John Finley’s house. A new schoolhouse was completed in September 1888, though it wasn’t until October 1889 that the voters approved a $550 bond measure to pay for it. The school closed in 1938 for lack of students and the following year it was annexed to Bieber. In July 1939, A. Jack purchased the abandoned schoolhouse for $35.

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History

Dracula and the Lassen Cemetery

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The infamous missing marker.
In the fall of 2015 while recuperating from my hip accident it did allow plenty of time to think. I had considered doing a short Halloween Cemetery tour at Lassen Cemetery featuring some of the more colorful characters of our past. Of course the first stop would be the grave of Vlaad Eifilnar b. 1551 d. 1662. Those dates are not a typo folks. Some are under belief that was Count Dracula’s name. The marker of note is typical of the 1930s and who placed it there is not known. In addition, when the county put in a new water system, and added sod, the marker was moved and I do not know where to.

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History

Washington School – Then & Now

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The grammar school, 1915.
Built in 1900-01 it was originally known as the Susanville Grammar School. During the boom era of the early 1920s when three more elementary schools were built in Susanville, brought about the need of school names, all named after presidents—Washington, McKinley, Lincoln and Roosevelt—and the grammar school became Washington. When the Washington School was condemned and torn down in 1948, it did find a bit of reincarnation nearby. The bricks were recycled and used to construct the residence at 709 Mill Street.
709 Mill Street, October 12, 2017

History

A tale of the Methodist Church

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Susanville’s Methodist Church, circa 1896. Courtesy of Philip S. Hall
For nearly the first fifteen years of Susanville’s existence it could said it was somewhat a scene of the old wild west, plenty of saloons, but no houses of worship. It was in the mid-1870s when two churches—the Congregation and Methodist—that the community started to become more civilized.

The construction of the Methodist Church at the corner of Lassen and Cottage Streets began in 1875. In 1877, with church nearing completion a bell was installed. The Lassen Advocate of June 23, 1877 reported: “The bell is already hung in the tower of the new M.E. Church. It is really a tony bell, its reverberations are heard for miles around. Our town is gradually taking on city airs.”

The bell it should be noted served a dual function for not only calling the faithful to worship, but it was the town’s fire alarm system for nearly three decades. However, it was no match for June 1900 fire that destroyed the church and three city blocks from Roop to Union. The bell survived that fire and when a new brick church replaced the old wooden one it was re-installed. The church was destroyed in the August 1915 fire and this time the bell did not survive.

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History

Decious Ranch

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Decious Ranch, 1886. Courtesy of Judith Matley Gibbons
In 1875 Joseph Decious purchased 213 acres five miles north of Milford. It was in a primitive state, only a small portion was under cultivation, and a log house for a dwelling. This would, of course, change over time. In his 1906 biography he boasted: “Visitors to the ranch notice with interest, on the shore of Honey Lake, the only steamer that ever sailed upon its waters, a small craft built in 1895, capacity thirty thousand pounds, which has been used principally for the bringing of freight to the residents of the valley.” In addition, his biography noted he had rented the ranch and retired to Chico, before he was sixty years of age.

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History

Frederick West Lander

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Worth the segment alone dealing with the Nobles Trail.
Frederick Lander was part of several expeditions of the 1850s to locate a route for a Pacific Railroad. There would be many turn of events during this time period, among them the nation’s civil war. When Lander arrived in the Smoke Creek/Honey Lake area, it just happened with the outbreak of the Pyramid Lake War of 1860, and there were several contributing events in the Honey Lake Valley that had a bearing. Lander was caught in the middle. He did keep an excellent account of those activities, which were published by the Desert Research Institute in 1993 with Joy Cleland as editor.

On a side note, even though he died in 1862, one hundred and thirty three years his estate funded a re-photographic survey of Eagle Lake; where in using photographs of the early 1900s, Desert Research Institute went back to those sites to photograph and examine the changes.

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History

Susan River, 1899

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Susan River, 1899. Courtesy of Philip S. Hall
As the Bizz Johnson Trail, formerly the Fernley & Lassen Railroad, is popular with locals and out-of-towners, alike, I thought some might enjoy today’s photograph. This was taken below Hobo Camp in 1899 prior to the railroad’s construction through there in 1913. The flume carried water to the Arnold Ditch would power the Arnold Planing Mill at the Richmond Road Bridge.

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