Red River Lumber Company’s labor problems in Westwood during the 1930s is a perfect case study on how to do everything wrong. There was, of course the great purge of in which nearly 400 men, women and children were forced out of their homes in Westwood on July 13, 1938 over a labor dispute. By the end of that historic day the California Highway Patrol, with the National Guard on standby placed a blockade on the community, sealing it from the outside world until things could stabilize.
I do not think we will encounter anything like this. Yes, it was a scary time during the strike of 1938 at Westwood.
According to historian Gerald Rose about the historical significance of the Red River purge he wrote, “Not until the 1941 deportation of Japanese-Americans was there a larger forced migration of United States citizens.”
An Eagle Lake ice cave, circa 1916. Courtesy of Wyn Wachhorst
With this current hot spell, I decided on a cool topic. In 1915, the Lucky Land of Lassen was a pamphlet that produced and distributed at the Panama Pacific International Exposition that was held in San Francisco. Of course it extolled all the wonderful virtues that Lassen County had to offer.. Of notable hightlight, it contained one of the earliest accounts concerning the lava beds and ice caves of Eagle Lake. This what the brochure contained:
“To the west of Spalding lies what is known as the ‘Lava Bed country’ about seven miles long and three or four miles wide. This is the wildest region in this section, and excepting the vegetation, it is almost as when the lava first cooled. It is full of caverns, wells and cracks, one of the latter being five miles long and three to twenty feet wide. In one place it has been sounded to a depth of 160 feet and no bottom found. In this crack there is an ice cave where plenty of ice may be obtained any year until August and some years throughout the entire summer.”
Earlier this year, I wrote out Lassen County’s so-called Mobile Home Culture. It was about instead of demolishing a structure, it was moved to a new location. You can read the story here.
Our neighbor to north in Alturas, took moving a building to the extreme. First a little background. In December 1908, the NCO Railroad finally made its way to Alturas. One would think the residents would be thrilled. That was not necessarily the case, since the NCO had increased its freight rates, it had a chilling effect.
The NCO built a stone passenger depot on 12th Street, far from everything else in town. The residents complained. To appease the situation, the railroad carefully disassembled the stone depot, numbering each stone, and once dismantled the stones were reassembled at the new location on Fourth Street. The depot closed in 1938, and in 1962, the Alturas Garden Club took over the property and still maintains it.
Recently, I acquired a photograph of the Ravendale Bar/Cafe. However, I do not have that much information on this former establishment. It was a fun place to stop. My memory is a bit hazy as to when it was destroyed by fire. It had recently changed ownership, and some were of the opinion that the fire’s origin was “suspicious.”
If anyone has information has on this topic, I would like to hear from you.
The inspection station at Jacks Valley, ten miles north of Susanville. Many folks know the location as the cement water trough on Highway 139.
California’s Agricultural Inspection Stations along its borders, are often referred by locals as “bug stations.” The agricultural inspection stations, locally, originated with an alfalfa weevil infestation in the southern portion of Lassen County in 1921. The county originally conducted the operations, and in 1923, the state took over.
As the infestations spread, more stations were opened. There was one just west of Susanville near the present day intersection of Highway 36 and Eagle Lake Road. Another one ten miles north of Susanville, just before approaching Willow Creek Valley. These would later be replaced and in 1953, the main station was at Long Valley. In 1976, when the segment of highway 395 was to become a divided highway, the station was in limbo, and the current one was put into place in 1986.
This is a brief, yet contemplative post. During World War I and II, rationing whether clothing, food, gas etc was a way of life. in the United States. Equally impressive how citizens overwhelming purchased Liberty or War Bonds. So here is a point to ponder. Given how society has changed would such rationing work today?
Back Cover
Notice how one was instructed was to save their tin cans and waste fats for the war effort.
After the logging season of 1952 ended, Fruit Growers discontinued railroad logging. In the Hazard Reduction of the Pine Creek Unit timber sale with the forest service in 1936, stated that all existing railroad grades be converted into roads, once the steel and ties were removed. In 1952 Fruit Growers had 48 miles of railroad line. A total conversion would be excessive. To rectify the difference Fruit Growers and the Forest Service conducted a joint field survey–the parties agreed upon the conversion of fifteen miles instead of the original 48. Fruit Growers agreed to maintain the roads for ten years after the timber sale.
It was one of those days, that I had a lapse of better judgment should have, but did not take a picture of Shay’s Hole. However, about a mile down the road, we stopped to take pictures of these old railroad ties still in place.
701 Nevada Street, Susanville, October 7, 1939–H. Frodsham photograph
In 1912, the Great Western Power Company was in the midst of the construction of Nevis Dam to create Lake Almanor. The company hired Dr. Fred J. Davis to provide medical care for the construction workers. In September 1913, Red River Lumber Company hired Dr. Davis to provide medical care to its newly constructed company town of Westwood. Dr. Davis would remain in charge of the Westwood Hospital until 1939. Dr. Davis, along with son, Dr. Fred J. Davis, Jr., moved to Susanville to open their private practice. At 701 Nevada Street, Susanville they had an office constructed. In 1965 Dr. Davis Sr. retired. In 1974, Dr. Fred J. Davis Jr. retired and he sold the office to Dr. Jay Beams. In 2022. Beams closed the office, which now sits vacant.
Here is a bit of worthless trivia about the early 1900s 4th of July parade route in Susanville. It was a short one. Entrants gathered at the corner of Cottage and South Gay Streets. From there the parade proceeded north on Gay and then turned left onto Main Street. Then the parade went one block west to Lassen Street, where the route took a left onto Lassen Street, which concluded at the intersection of Lassen and Cottage Street, basically a nearly one block loop.
The Johnston House, July 4, 1909. Courtesy of Betty Barry Deal
Tim
P.S. Any one who is a long time reader, know that I a firm believer on a ban of fireworks. This is an excerpt from yesterday’s New York Times:
Fireworks sparked 916 wildfires in the state in 2021, the most recent year for which full data is available, and those fires caused more than $3.2 million in property damage, according to CalFire. The year before that, in the state’s worst fire season on record, fireworks caused more than 2,000 fires and $8 million in property damage, along with injuries to 11 people and one death.
It is not just a California phenomenon. A study published last year in the journal PLoS One found that more than 11,000 wildfires nationwide were caused by fireworks between 1980 and 2016 — and that two-thirds of those blazes occurred in the two-week period around July 4.
In fact, more fires began on July 4 than on any other day of the year, it found.
The “L” as it appeared on the mountainside in 1947. In the foreground is the Paul Bunyan Lumber Mill, now the area of WalMart, etc. Courtesy of Fred Lendman
On February 18, 1928 the Lassen High Block L Society formed, that was the boy’s athletic organization. One of their first activities was the painting of the “L” on Susanville Peak. In 2008, Betty Jo Buckles Coplen provided me with this behind the scene account: “In 1924, my father, Maynard Robert “Billy” Buckles accepted a position teaching at Lassen Union High School, and we moved to Susanville. Four years later, members of the new Block L Society came to my Dad. They asked him to help them plan a Block L for them to lay out on the hillside. He helped them to design a letter L with the proper classic proportions (200 yards long). He also warned them that a letter of that size would be difficult to keep whitewashed. The Block L boys persevered and constructed the letter on the hill, moving rocks into the outline to be painted white. For decades as planned the freshman boys painted the letter each year, but eventually that practice died out.”
While the Block L Society no longer exists, the Lassen High Alumni Association has from time to time maintained it, the last time was done in 2008.
