In the spring of 1874, Iowa resident, Sylvester Daniels (1828-1908) left his home in Iowa to travel west, specifically near Janesville, Lassen County, California where his sister, Polly Parks resided.  He was in search of a new home, with a more desirable climate for him and his family. During his ventures, he kept a daily journal, which once full of entries he sent back to his family about the findings of this unfamiliar territory. Like so many, of that era, he kept a journal most of his life.

In the fall of 1875, Daniels went north of investigate Surprise Valley, Modoc County. He spent a couple of days in Cedarville and this was his observation of that frontier community:  “Cedarville is a quiet little town. There is one steam flouring mill, one store, two hotels, two harness shops one tin and stove store, one blacksmith and wagon shop and one saloon, the latter I consider no credit to any town.

”I think the land here is great deal better than the Honey Lake Valley and a great deal more of it and can be had for less money and as near as I can learn the climate is about the same. It is newer, the land is not worn out so much here..”

In the end Daniels decided to locate in Surprise Valley. In December 1875 he acquired some land at Lake City,  He moved his family and would remain there the rest of his life, and descendants still reside in the region.

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Recently, I received an invite to be one of the guest speakers for the upcoming “Rooptown Podcasts.” I declined. It has nothing to do with the people behind the podcast. I just detest “Rooptown.” It never existed, except in those who in their mindset considered Isaac Roop, a saint—which he was not—more on that for another time. Just in case, if you are new to this site, or the area, Roop founded the town of Susanville, named for his daughter, but Susan River was named for someone else prior Roop’s arrival. For the record the SusanvillePost Office was established on March 17, 1859.

Asa Fairfield in his Pioneer History of Lassen County infers that Susanville was briefly known as Rooptown in 1858. However, Fairfield is vague about any kind of documentation. In my years of research I have never found any reference in that era of Rooptown. Early newspaper correspondents gave a dateline of Honey Lake Valley. It had bothered Fairfield so much that nothing was named for him, hence the possibility of a brief existence of a Roptown.

When Fairfield writes about Roop’s death in 1869, about his disdain of Peter Lassen: “Governor Roop received very little gratitude from the people in this section. Almost everything was named in honor of Peter Lassen, who was not a pioneer settler of the county, who lived here four years and never did anything  particular in the country.”  Ouch. Lassen visited the Honey Lake Valley in 1850, before Roop set foot in California and in 1855 built the second cabin in the valley.

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Since this falls under the category it does not hurt to ask, I am looking for some photographs. Does any one happen to have photograph of the original shoe tree along Highway 395 at Mud Flat? This relates to something I am working on the Secret Valley CCC camp. Along those same lines, if anyone is venturing out on Smoke Creek Road, I could use a photograph of a stretch of that “boulevard.” Depending on how far someone travels down that road, if you happen to go by Bull Flat, Rush Creek and Robbers Roost, photographs of those landmarks would be appreciated.

Of course, while any one is out exploring this summer or fall, and you come across an interesting landmark, I am always looking for potential calendar cover photograph, like the one above.

Tim