One hundred years ago today, President Woodrow Wilson signed Congressman John E. Raker’s bill to create Lassen Volcanic National Park. There were a lot of obstacles on the journey to make Lassen Peak and its surroundings a national park.

One of the first movements to create a Lassen Park began in 1904, but it was a fleeting moment. It would not be until the fall of 1910, when Modoc County Superior Court Judge, John E. Raker was elected to California’s First Congressional District seat, that the park movement was truly put into motion.  One of the first bills Raker introduced  called for the creation of a Redwood National Park, but it failed. On February 23, 1912, Raker introduced a bill, H.R. 19557, to establish Peter Lassen National Park. The proposed park encompassed 80,505 acres that included  two national monuments–Lassen Peak and Cinder Cone that were designated as such in 1907. Since the lands were under the jurisdiction of the forest service, a report from that agency was required. The agency neither endorsed nor opposed the park. The bill never made it out of committee. 

Raker was persistent and the following year he re-introduced the Lassen Park bill. This time the forest service objected. They cited twelve livestock operators used the proposed territory for grazing. In addition, they thought the area had great potential for summer resorts, and the forest service, and not a park was better suited to handle these issues.

A stalemate ensued. One of Raker’s hurdles was that the Lassen Peak was relatively unknown, even to his own constituents.  Then everything suddenly changed with the unexpected volcanic eruptions of Lassen Peak in the summer of 1914. This provided Lassen with national exposure and it no longer remained unknown.  In addition, two men, Redding businessman Michael Dittmar and Red Bluff businessman Arthur Conard had pivotal roles in the park’s establishment and development. But even with all the encouraging momentum, Raker’s bill never made it to the floor by the time Congress adjourned in March 1915.

On December 6, 1915, the opening day of the 64th Congress, Raker for the third time introduced his park bill. This time he felt confident of its passage, because of Lassen Peak’s volcanic eruptions and the support of the residents of Northern California. Again, the forest service opposed it. There was also the Mather issue. In 1914, Stephen T. Mather was recruited to create a separate agency inside the Department of Interior whose sole purposes would be the administration of national parks.  Mather who had never visited the Lassen Peak region opposed it, on his observation that national monuments were substandard to national parks.

In a strange turn of events was the passage by California voters of a $18 million bond measure for construction of highways, and work had begun on a Red Bluff to Susanville lateral road that would go past the southern portion of the proposed park. This resolved the accessibility issue.  In the meantime, Conard and Dittmar continued with their lobbying efforts.

In the summer, Congress approved Raker’s park bill, and it was presented to President Wilson who signed it on August 9, 1916.

Note: I only have about ten copies of my Lassen Volcanic book left.

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