In 1889, H.C. Watson tried his hand in dairy operation north of Lookout, Modoc County. In the beginning all went well, In the summer it was doomed, due to lack of water and feed.

In 1902, Watson entered the dairy trade again. This time around, he was affiliated with several cheese factories in Modoc County under the name of Mountain Valleys Dairy Products. Watson established the Bieber Cheese Factory. In time, Watson would acquire cheese/creameries at Alturas, Lake City and Cedarville. Watson would sale Lake City and Cedarville operations to Vincil Coppedge. In 1928, Coppedge married Watston’s daughter, Mildred In 1942, Coppedge purchased the Alturas Creamery and he renamed it Mountain Lily Dairy.  In September 1944, Watson sold the Bieber Cheese Factory to Vince l Coppedge, Watson died a year a later, and it is my understanding during this time frame the Bieber Cheese Factory was destroyed by fire.

An  interesting anecdote of the operation was relayed to me by Orville Watkins. He stated the catfish grew nice and fat in the Pit River at Bieber  thanks to Watson-the excess whey that cheese factory produced was disposed by dumping it into the river.

Tim

My good friend Hannah, made this comment at a Farmer’s Market several years ago. She and I share this generation trait. Even though our ancestors settled in the Honey Lake Valley in the 1860s, one would think that we would be at least sixth generation born, but we are about that half that.

Some families have major age differences. I will use my mother’s family as an example. My grandfather, John Tanner was born in 1882. His wife Lola Murrer was born in 1899. They were married in 1927. My mother, their youngest daughter was born in 1931. My mother’s first cousin Verna Tanner was only three years younger than Lola. Verna married Bill Haley (Clint’s brother for the older valley folks) and her children were the same age as of my mother, but a generation apart. Now my mother’s uncle Alfred Murrer, who was fifteen years younger than  Lola  married Emma Lee Gelmsted in 1951- the same year my mother and father (Leroy Purdy) were married My brother Gary, and Alfred and Emma Lee Murrer’s son, Johnny were born in  the same year. The bottom line, is my mother’s generation of first cousins spans over fifty years! If you are member of this wide generation shift you understand, while others ponder why wrote about it.

Tim

P.S. – Celebrate the  Spring Equinox today

Bumpass Hell is well known hydro-thermal feature in Lassen Volcanic National Park. In May 1914, when Lassen Peak began its initial eruption, people flocked to the region. Very few people were aware how these features surrounding Lassen Peak received their names. The importance of instititopnal knowledge. A writer for the Sacramento Bee wrote that “its got its name from ‘bumping’ a man named Bumpass around in that super heated mushy caldron for a very insignificant portion of three days he would never have been taken from it , and world at large would never have known whether it was Bumpass ‘hell’ or Bumpass ‘heaven’. It all depends , you know”. There was a rebuttal story that the said writer remembers that  the late Abe Holmes settled at Big Meadows, now Lake Almanor. told this story.  “Mr. Bumpass, a visitor from the East, went to Morgan Springs and Drake’s thirty-five or more years ago. At the former place he was greatly impressed with the heat of the water, and when he saw the bubbling, boiling mud at Drake’s he remarked positively, ‘Well, that is hell.’ Since that time it has been known Bumpass Hell-and no more appropriate name could be given it-no more appropriate title needed. “

Both writers were wrong. Not only  were they wrong about Kendall Bumpass, but Holmes mistook Bumpass Hell for Devils Kitchen!

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In 1910, George Wingfield established a summer residence south of Susanville,. He had a special interest in wildlife and established his own little preserve. That fall, he fenced off eighty acres for an elk and deer park. In 1914, he added four buffalo to his collection. It was purported that the buffalo came from Nevada Governor Sparks. This became a major attraction to local residents to view these creatures.

Wingfield also brought in such “exotic” species as peacocks and mammoth size frogs imported from New Orleans. He had two small lakes constructed on the property to plant with a wide variety of fish.

In 1923 Wingfield sold the property to the Lassen Lumber & Box Company who were primarily interested in the timberland he owned there. The buffalo were shipped to Reno. The fenced enclosure to keep the elk in, was no longer maintained and the animals began to roam the region, with spottings from nearby Bald Mountain to Willow Creek Valley. The elk were poached by hunters over the years, and were wiped out by the early 1940s.

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