This is a topic we have not addressed. While not common, it was not unheard of where mutual parties exchanged properties. Government entities engaged in this practice.

For starters we begin with the Capezzoli/Tanner swap of the Standish/Tule District. Both ranches were approximately the same size between 450=500 acres each. Lena Capezzoli stated that in the 1920s, the property was jinxed as her father died there in 1915 and her brother, while coming home was involved a fatal car crash on Bass Hill in  January 1928.  Later, in 1928, the deal between the Capezzoli family and John and Lola Tanner was consummated.

Over time, the Tanners acquired surrounding small ranches like Stampfli and Whitehead. When the family sold it in September 2025, the acreage was 1550.

Tim

Utilities such as electricity and telephone service to the residents of the Honey Lake Valley presented many challenges.* It was the telephone prevailed years before electricity would be available to residents. On July 10, 1911, the Honey Lake Valley Mutual Telephone Association incorporated as a co-operative.  Its headquarters, was the hamlet of Buntingville. In 1924, the group had over 200 subscribers from Standish, Janesville, Milford, and Richmond.  Plagued with financial problems, it was taken over by the Lassen Telephone Company on July 21, 1924. Eventually, the Buntingville office was shuttered and transferred to Susanville. Lassen Telephone was later acquired by Citizens. 

Tim

*By1900, Chinaman Joe Folsom had developed a private telephone system in Wiilow Creek Valley. Likewise, Carey Sturgess did the same for Long Valley.

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September 1st is opening of dove season around these parts  it marks the official start of hunting season. By 1900, the farmers/ranchers in the Standish/Tule District routinely advertised in the local papers that no trespassing would be tolerated during bird season.  This resulted in evolution of local gun (hunting) clubs. It was beneficial for the property owner and the hunter. Through a club the hunter gained access to and in exchange patrol the lands as a deterrent to trespassers.

Since these were private affairs, some formal and others informal, there is a lack of information about them.  I know this well, since I managed the Ring Neck Club for Tanner Ranch for nearly forty years.This club was established in the 1940s. As my grandmother Lola Tanner only cooked on a Home Comfort stove, which supplied her hot water, the gun club furnished her wood supply for their hunting privileges.

Tim

This was a very short-lived timber company that had lots of potential, but the timing was not quite right.With the arrival of the Fernley & Lassen Railroad provided many opportunities as it provided a transportation conduit that had not been in existence.

The Western Timber Treating was a Sacramento based operation. It was their intention to harvest lodgepole pine and treat it with creosote (a tar based oil), as it made for a superior pole. Cedar had been pole of choice, but the supply of it  became more difficult to obtain due to depletion from harvesting. The firm figured that with modernization taking place, i.e., electrical and telephone services, there would be a great demand for its probuct.

The company negotiated a ten year lease with the Lassen National Forest for two million board feet of lodgepole pine. The company would pay the Forest Service half a cent per lineal foot. This timber was located eighteen miles west of Susanville, and adjacent to the Fernely & Lassen Railroad.

In 1913, the company went to the residents of Susanville for support in their venture-first with stock options. As an incentive to the sale of stock locally, it offered to create Board of Director seats to be filled by Susanville residents. But the sale of stock was minimal, and no plant was constructed. No one from Susanville was appointed to the Board.

In October 1913, the company established a logging camp approximately eighteen miles west of Susanville. This camp employed 25 people. It was the firm’s intention to operate six additional camps in 1914. The company continued with logging operations through the 1915 season.

There were problems on horizon. The first it encountered was the shortage of creosote. At the time, the majority of of the supply of creosote came from Europe, which was now engaged  in war. There were financial difficulties as well. By 1916, court judgements against the company had been rendered. The final outcome resulted with the take over by the Burton-Cotton Lumber Company of Salt Lake City. One of the principals in that company was C.E. Cotton, an important figure of the formation of the Lassen Lumber & Box Company.

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