Juniper Lake, at an elevation of 6,753 feet, covers an area of some 592 acres, making it the largest lake in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Interestingly the lake has a maximum depth of 234 feet. In the 1870s, the California State Geological Survey named it Lake Louise, but others had applied Juniper to it, and the latter won out.

Early day visitors to the lake were few. Its remoteness, along with its heavy winter snowfalls, usually did not make it accessible until June. By October, as a general rule, the snow returned, again making the place inhospitable.

In 1889, a San Francisco speculator, Elbert Dodge, appeared on the scene and filed a 475-acre claim to the northwest shore of the lake. He did nothing with it, and another San Franciscan, J.P. Frenna, later acquired Dodge’s preemptive claim. The actual owner was the State of California, which designated it as school land. In 1892, Frenna purchased it from the state for the nominal fee of $1.25 per acre.

Juniper Lake has a long sordid story of summer home development, that never came to full fruition, due to its remoteness and short summer season. I understand that the Dixie Fire (2021) ravaged the area. I have not been back there or the Warner Valley, because I do not have go that far, to see the burn scars of that fire, and others.

Tim