Harvey Valley is located in the north central part of Lassen County about half way between McCoy Flat Reservoir, to the south, and Big Valley to the north. It was so named after various members of the Harvey family—George, James, Mary, Nettie, Samuel, Silas and Thomas—who were residents of Adin and Hayden Hill and in 1906 filed timberland locations which a mountain and valley were named for after them.

One of the very first ranger stations on the Lassen National Forest was located there. R.H. Abbey, the first ranger to occupy the station wrote in his diary: “This station house was a cheaply constructed 1 large room house, 14 x 16, with 2 windows. It was built out of thin shiplap lumber with roof of same material. It was equipped with a very small cook stove and homemade bunk for a bedstead.”

In 1936, Harvey Valley became a focal point in a government study to improve and maintain grazing capacity. Noted range scientist, August L. Hormey, conducted his experiments on livestock grazing. This was where the rest-rotation grazing system was developed.

Yet, there is more to the story of this remote locale. In 1948, the Lassen National Forest and California Department of Corrections established Inmate Camp No. 21. The camp consisted of 58 inmates from Folsom Prison who were supervised by ten forest service personnel and four state guards. The inmates were trained as a “Hot Shot” firefighting crew. When not fighting fires, the inmates worked on various conservation projects from soil erosion to improving timber stands. It operated for sixteen years.

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