It is a rarity, or at unless its just me, to locate early day Christmas photographs. In 1906, J. Henry Swain who had a desert homestead at Dry Valley, located between Grasshopper and the Madeline Plains, moved to Susanville and opened at Swain’s Bar. He was astonished that the saloon business was of lucrative. His wife, Annie, was staunch tee-totolar and was not thrilled about her husband’s new occupation. On the other, she did admit about a trade off, since she could indulge in the finer things life. In 1908, Swains purchased dilapidated building at the west end of Main Street. Once renovation process was complete, it was an envy to many. In 1922, the widow Annie Swain sold to the Antlers Club, precursor to the Elks.

Tim

Note: The Monticola Club is very special to me. One of their earliest endeavors was the formation of the Lassen County Free Library. That library system opened a whole new world when I was growing up, and provided a foundation for my early historical research. Tim

Clean out your closets of extra unused shoes to make room for new shoes/slippers/boots that may be coming your way for Christmas.  Monticola Club’s Fundraiser Project is nearing the end and more shoes are needed.  In addition to the drop-off locations listed below, there is a large box at Susanville Supermarket.

My holiday activity will be spent retrieving old research files from some cd’s. A generous friend provided me with a USB SuperDrive to do the task. I thought I had printed out a hard copy of my notes on the local Native American community dating back to record searches of late 1800s from my older computer files. There are gaps in that print out, so hopefully the full file will appear on the cd. After all I have gone through several computers, and the older ones, there had been problems of file transfers. Who knows what gems I might uncover.

Tim

Just a friendly reminder to buy your calendar, as inventory is low at this point. Margie’s Book Nook has three,  I have one available and that is it. Of note, I had several people comment to me that this was an especially excellent calendar. 

Tim

During the month of December I will be examining the Lassen Advocate newspaper of 1898 and 1914. If you are interested in people, places or events, please let me know. I do have a long overdue request for Edward Hilder. In addition, obituary requests for Jesse Cole (1898) and John F. Hulsman (1914).

Tim

More than a decade ago, my book sales saw a deep decline. The last profitable book was that of my Red River Lumber Company series. If the truth be known, if it had not been for the Walker heirs of Red River, I would have been doomed. Another example, released in 2002 , and considered by many as my best work was the  Lassen County Almanac: An Historical Encyclopedia. Even with rave reviews it did not sale out until twenty years later. Ouch.

Yet, from time to time, I have been asked to reprint a book, especially Eagle Lake and Lake Almanor. That is a pricey proposition that is a doomed financial failure. After all, I would be competing myself since BookFinder.com and other entities have my used books listed.

There is a related subject–calendars. Calendars have also seen sharp decline. I struggle to sale fifty. When I first corroborated with the Lassen High School Graphic Arts in 1979, we published 500! While program ended in 1999, I resurrected it. In 2017 I had 100+ calendars produced and that number has been reduced to half.

Tim