During the winter of 1930-31 a group of Mineral residents organized the Mt. Lassen Ski Club. The first officers were : L. Walker Collins, President; Art Holmes Secretary and H.K. “Husky” Beresford, Treasurer. Not only was club influential in bringing winter sports to the region, but they also brought skiing to Lassen Park. On October 23, 1931, Beresford had obtained a special use permit from the forest service to construct a fifty meter ski jump near Mineral.

The club was off  to a good start. On January 17, 1932, it sponsored its first ski tournament at Mineral .To attract crowds, it was necessary to showcase the talents of professional ski jumpers. The club was able to secure the attendance of the “Viking Caravan,” a renowned group of professional Norwegian skiers–Alf Engel, Lars Haugan, Halvor Halstad, Sig Ulland Steffan Trogstad, Sverre Engine and Einar Fredbo–plus an American Ted Rex, Rex was a Michigan native, won the the 1930 U.S. Professional Ski Jumping Championship.

While the professional ski jumpers served their purpose in drawing crowds to the event, this was not their only intention. It provided a golden opportunity to encourage spectators to to participate in skiing, many for the first time. At the Mineral event, the morning was devoted to the public and billed as a “snow folic” where one could ski, take skiing lessons, sled toboggan and to partake in the popular ashcan slide.

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In the 1910s, the State of California had the daunting task of plotting out a highway system, and there were plenty of details to be dealt with. Among them, especially for the traveling public, was the designation of highway routes. In the early 1920s, the California Automobile Association led a campaign to give descriptive names of the mountain routes. Highway boosters of the region proclaimed the route between Red Bluff and Susanville, the Lassen Volcanic Highway, since the highway went by the southern entrance of the national park. In time, the State of California began to use a numbering system, and initially proclaimed this route as Number 29. In 1935, it was changed to State Highway Route 36. The change of the number was necessary to reflect the adoption of a uniform system, where even road numbers went to east-west direction and odd ones were for north-south routes.

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The east side of Honey Lake Valley is known for its arid condition. Flanagan is the driest, some historical records have noted the annual average precipitation of three inches of rainfall, which is in the range of Death Valley.

It was the January 1911 snowstorm that caught Amedee residents by surprise. After six day storm  Amedee received six feet of snowfall, while Susanville had eight.

Robert Trussell, a Johnstonville resident, who was thirteen years old at the time, stated there was a not fence post in sight in the Honey Lake Valley.

Marie Herring Gould who resided at Amedee during the big snow recalled the NCO Depot looked a like a giant white mound. By the end of the month the snow had melted at Amedee.

Tim