Eagle Lake’s first settler was.a thirty-three old New Yorker by the name of Levi Button, who recorded a claim to 160-acres on the northwestern shore on January 4, 1870. Button had resided in Lassen County since 1863, making living from prospecting and trapping. He built himself a cabin at the lake and resided there periodically until 1875. He then departed for eastern Oregon. Before leaving he remarked that the wildlife had greatly diminished due to the influx of livestock grazing on the surrounding mountains.

A number of individuals had become occupants of Button’s abandoned homestead. In a five years period, Isaac Adams, Frank Day, Samuel C. Dibble, Hiram Sewall and Daniel Cramer claimed possession of the place, but none them remained there for any length of time and failed to gain. title.

In the early 1880s, a German immigrant, Adolph Schuler took up Button’s abandoned claim. He had several improvements and secured 166-acre federal land patent. In 1885, Schuler sold the property to James D. Byers who had an extensive livestock operation in the Honey Lake Valley. Byers incorporated the property for summer grazing. Schuler worked as a ranch hand and. reminded on the property for most of his life. Byers who died in 1902, was a bachelor and he left the bulk of his estate to his nephew’s wife, Sarah McCleland. Since then, has it remained in the McClelland family.

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