The kitchen crew at Secret Valley CCC camp—C.H. Bennett Collection
The CCC Secret Valley Camp correspondent with his news release of camp activities concluded in his column how Thanksgiving was celebrated there in 1935: “Thanksgiving Day here in the camp was one day the boys will not forget for a long time to come. The menu was indeed very well cooked and served. Turkey was all over the camp. One of the boys stated, ‘it sure was a well eaten meal.’ I should say it was. In fact there was so much turkey and mince pie and what not that some of the boys did not feel like working the next day. But, ‘we can take it.’ Yes, sir.”
A decorative mess hall at Secret Valley CCC—C.H. Bennett Collection
Bennett wrote whimsically of this photograph of him at Secret Valley, “hard at work.”
It is Thanksgiving and throughout the year I am so grateful for many things, some big and some small, but it all matters just the same. For the past several months, we have examined the activities of the Secret Valley Civilian Conservation Corp Camp through the photographs of Charles H. Bennett, the Company Clerk. First and foremost I am thankful that he took the time to photograph the activities, but equally important that he carefully labeled and placed them in albums.
Bennett was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but at a young age the family moved to southeastern Missouri. There he graduated from Benton High School in 1934. Shortly thereafter, he joined the CCC and became Company Clerk for the 740th Company at Piedmont, Missouri. One of their major projects was the construction of buildings at Sam A. Baker State Park. In 1936 Company 740 was relocated to Secret Valley, Lassen County, California. He remained at Secret Valley until 1938 eventually returning to Missouri. He graduated from the University of Missouri, Columbia in 1942, then served in the U.S. Army until discharged in 1952. His next journey was with the Christian Board of Publications in St. Louis and after 32 years retired in 1979. Bennett passed away in 1984. His wife, Lucille, kept her husband’s possessions, and when she passed away in 2001, her daughter, Kathy Seitrich did the same. Fast forward to the spring of 2023, and I received an email from Kathy about her father’s CCC photographs. Within a short time of my communication with Kathy, the photograph albums arrived. I was so elated and told her so. She was happy, too, that they found a good home. For a short while I was amiss in my emails to Kathy, as I was busy scanning the photographs and writing the stories. When I finally sent her an update, there was no response for the longest time. This was unusual as she was always prompt in responding. In early July, I received an email from her daughter, who relayed that her mother was diagnosed with cancer in late May/early June and that Kathy passed away on July 1. It was heart breaking news for me, as she never saw the posts about Secret Valley. Even though it was a sad ending, I am so thankful to the Bennett family in preserving history of our little corner of the world..
In June 1986, I received a letter from Thomas Mawer of the Eagle Lake Ranger District of the Lasen National Forest.. The topic Gallatin House, and included with the letter a report. It confirmed what many had known, the forest service wanted to demolish the building, After all, some speculated that during the 1984 Aspen fire, the forest service had opportunity to let it go up in flames. No matter what, for me a battle was born.
First, I would need assistance to tackle this. My initial contact was with Valerie “Val” Campbell who was a. historical archaeologist for Caltrans. I had met her a year earlier when she was evaluating Highway 139. We plotted out a course of action and began a letter campaign. She recruited colleagues and pointed out that Gallatin House met the criteria to be included on the National Register of Historic Places. I recruited the Friends of Eagle Lake. This group had organized several years earlier when Lassen County was putting together its Eagle Lake Area Plan. Some of the key figures of “Friends” were located in Santa Cruz. This group was very well organized and a major letter campaign had begun, the old fashioned way before email, etc.
Time was of the essence in my opinion. When I had a discussion with Richard Henry, Lassen National Forest Supervisor, he was adamant about the building’s demolition. What may have been decision day of the fate of the building came at the September 1986 meeting of the Eagle Lake Interagency Board meeting. The topic was addressed. There was plenty of public supporters there to address their concern, but the board had the letters of support. While the board had no authority, it gave the preservationists approval in the court of public opinion. The forest service remained silent, for a long time and gave no indication what their next move might be.
Gallatin House, 1992
In 1988, the forest service announced that they had approved a special use permit for thirty-five acres on the southeast side of Eagle Lake to the McDonald’s Corporation—the well known fast food chain. The property was transformed into a Camp Ronald McDonald for disabled and disadvantaged children. The Gallatin House is part of the complex. It houses some of the staff and administrative office space. However, it should be noted that front portion of the Gallatin House is still in its original state. An interesting piece of trivia, the last time I was able to inspect the house, with Gallatin descendants in tow, there was an oak table the Gallatin family left behind in 1944, and it is still there.
For those who enjoyed skiing at Coppervale this last season, you need to thank Bert and Mary Bain who established it and then Lassen College who has been operating it since the end of the World War II.
First a little background. Back in the 1930s several road houses were established along highway 36 between Susanville and Westwood. They initially started out simple first with a gas station and restaurant, and later expanding. One of these was The Meadows which was located across the highway from the base of Coppervale.
At the same time, skiing, and more particularly ski jumping was all the rage throughout Northern California, where numerous professional events were staged. In 1934, the Paul Bunyan Ski Club of Westwood even sponsored one which they built a ski jump on Fredonyer. In the spring of 1935, Bert and Mary Bain purchased The Meadows. First they expanded operations with an enlarged restaurant, but added a bar and dance floor. To attract amateur skiers, Bain had a ski jump constructed across the highway from The Meadows. Bain recruited noted skiers Sid Knudson and Phil Brown to design and build a small jump for his guests, and thus the Coppervale Ski Hill was born.
Personally, travel brochures, past and present,can provide for some interesting creative writing. Case in point is the Western Pacific’s Railroad brochure: A Story of the Feather River Canyon. While it has no date, there are details inside that is was probably published for the Panama Pacific Exposition held in San Francisco in 1915. While the brochure focus on the many attributes of the Feather River Canyon, it had this interesting piece about Honey Lake.
“Away from the Feather River are the lakes—the most wonderful lakes of the American continent—and these are reached by rail in connection with the ever convenient automobile stage. The pearl of Lassen County is Honey Lake, so long famous for its waterfowl that even pioneers knew of it in their day; and one of the most traveled overland trails, branching off in Wyoming, had this lake as its objective. Honey Lake and the country thereabout is readily reached by leaving the main line at Doyle.”
This is what some referred to as a “ghost” school. The circumstances are rather odd. In January/February 1911 W. Mylar, who had three school aged children circulated a petition to establish the Purser School District. It met all the criteria. In the proposed district boundary there were 22 children. They were also more than five miles from the nearest school. For reasons unknown Lassen County Board of Supervisors did not approve it. Three years later, a new petition, known as Caloreta School District, which was identical to Purser, was approved.
Purser would later become known as the railroad community of Wendel. That locale had many names in its early years. It was named after Edward T. Purser, a major player in irrigation projects of the Honey Lake Valley in the 1890s. I have large size professional photograph negative of him but not a print, but once with a positive scan I will write about him. A person has offered to scan negatives like this, but I have experienced issues on my part that have have stalled the hand off of such. Hopefully soon, another project to be completed during the forthcoming Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
In 2019, I published an A&W advertisement, that a number of people emailed me about fond memories of the establishment. With that in mind, I thought I would do another. I am also including the advertisement from the past files.
1971 Advertisement in the Lassen Cougar Yearbook. Courtesy of Jim Chapman
A&W opened in 1961. I do not know when it closed. If anyone knows, please inform me of the same. A&W still exists, the nearest one is located as 1311 Baring Blvd, Sparks, Nevada. In the above ad, take note of Regal Gas Station gas prices.
Packaging tape with the Paul Bunyan trademark.Courtesy of John Webb
In the logging camps in Canada and Northeastern United States as folklore would have it, tales of the mythical Paul Bunyan was born. Stories were passed around in the camps, no written account.
In 1900, W. B. “Bill” Laughead, a cousin to T.B. Walker, went to work in Red River Lumber Company’s logging camps at Akeley, Minnesota. There he undertook many jobs starting as a camp chore-cook and ending as a construction engineer. After eight years of working in the woods, he decided to move to Minneapolis working odd jobs and experimented with free-lance advertising work. It was at this time, Laughead drew the first known character drawing of Paul Bunyan, in part of an advertising campaign for Red River’s new California operation. Laughead created the company logo, of a circular design, with his Paul Bunyan’s face, accompanied on the outside with the words Paul Bunyan’s Pine and it became Red River’s registered trademark. The logo was placed on many products and even on its logging trucks. For a short time, Red River even bottled their own soda beverage, with the embossed bottles displaying the trademark. When the company expanded into other operations, they changed it to a Paul Bunyan Product.
In the 1940s, during the dissolution process of Red River, Kenneth Walker continued in the lumber business. In doing so, the trademark was transferred to him, since his own enterprise was the Paul Bunyan Lumber Company.
Shinn Brothers 1880 bill for printing services to Lassen County. James O. Shinn excelled in spencerian script, no doubt influenced by his mother, Louisa, being a school teacher. His two brothers,Al and Robert, who became attorneys had sloppy handwriting.
There has been for some time a debate brewing over whether cursive handwriting should be taught. Debate no more. One of the many bills California Governor Newsom signed into law in October was to bring back cursive writing in elementary schools. Seventeen other states have cursive writing as part of the education process.
It should be noted that by 1850, Spencerian Script had been widely adopted in schools as well as in the business community. With the advent of typewriters it began to fade away in the early 1900s. By the 1920s, schools began adopting the Palmer Method. It was considered more streamlined, less laborious and faster technique.
Of note, the Spencerian had some quirky traits, which one sees a lot in early documents of Lassen County. A double “s” such as Lassen, looks like a “p.” This was evident in the short-lived Lassen Post Office in the Willow Creek Valley that only operated from June 19, 1874, to July 14, 1875. Some records cite it as “Lapen,” due to the penmanship of Edward Bonyman, its first and only postmaster.
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McKissick Cemetery, November 11, 1936—C.H. Bennett Collection
Company Clerk, C.H. Bennett of the Secret Valley CCC Camp captured this special service at the McKissick Cemetery in Secret Valley. While there is a photographic record of. the event, the details of what took place is not known.
They assembled at the grave of John Daniel McKissick, a World War I veteran who was buried there on March 17, 1936. McKissick was born on January 13, 1891 in Secret Valley, the eldest child of John Best* and Jennie Swain McKissick. The following is an excerpt from his obituary: “He was drafted in the infantry at the first call and his brother Wilbur Best McKissick enlisted in heavy artillery soon after he heard Johnny had been called. John was found on the battlefield of Argonne (France) by a first-aid nurse, lying among the dead, with a dead comrade laying across him, breathing but still bleeding from a shot over the heart and through the chest by an explosive shell or shrapnel which tore a large jagged hole through his left shoulder blade.
McKissick Cemetery, November 11, 1936—C.H. Bennett
”Aid was summoned and he was carried on a stretcher. to a hospital tent, where he remained until he was able to be removed across the Channel to a hospital in England, where he lay for six weeks.”
John Daniel McKissick—Donald T. Garate
John Daniel McKissick never fully recovered from his injuries. He would spend time on and off in hospitals and when he passed away he had been in the Veteran’s Hospital, Salt Lake City. for a long time
Tim
*John Best “Buster” McKissick has the distinction of being the World’s First Champion Cowboy.
