While I have wrote about Fruit Growers Supply Company and Red River Lumber Company and their operations, its time to include another major lumber mill, Lassen Lumber & Box Company .Susanville lobbied hard to have Red River build its mill there, but failed. It is an intriguing tale for another time. However, Red River did give the community the one thing it had desired since its earliest of years—a railroad.

Since the region’s isolation due to the lack of a railroad, its natural resources such as timber remained untapped. With the railroad in place, it was just a matter of time when Susanville would find a suitor to locate there.

During World War I there was a tremendous demand for lumber. In October 1917, three men, C.E. Cotton, R.D. Baker and Charles McGowan spent two weeks examining national forest service lands for timber. In Susanville, they met with Susanville businessman, M.O. Folsom concerning possible millsites. However, their preferred site was near Westwood Junction, since it would be close to the timber, and thereby reduce the costs of getting timber to the proposed mill. Unlike, Fruit Growers and Red River, this group did not own vast amounts of timberland and sought government timber. By the end of the year, Cotton & Company were high bidders for forest service timber in the vicinity of Pegleg Mountain.

Not to have another lost opportunity, the Susanville business community as an incentive offered a 40-acre millsite with water rights, and a $8,000 cash bonus. The gentlemen agreed and they named their new enterprise the Lassen Lumber & Box Company.

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