Welcome, to the new site and hope you enjoy it. Beginning on March 1 , I will be posting on a daily basis, sometimes about an historic event or sometimes about a current news matter. In addition, most all posts will contain a pertinent photograph or two.

Herman Brince was a photographer in Lassen, Modoc and Plumas counties during 1878-79.  I have always been impressed with his photographs, though only dozen or so are known to be existence. Whatever, became of his negatives is unknown, but we do know that he died in New Zealand in 1882. However, in 2003, one of his photographs, an 1879 picture of Susanville’s Masonic Lodge surfaced on Ebay, which I purchased, but that is another story.

The picture depicted is that of Adin, taken in 1879. The town was named for Adin Gainey McDowell, who in 1869 was the first person to settle on the east side of Big Valley. Adin flourished during the 1870s because of its close proximity to the mining town of Hayden Hill. As a matter of fact, it was Modoc County’s largest town for awhile.