During the late 1880s during the dam building frenzy throughout the region, I thought it was always rather peculiar that a dam was never built in the Susan River Canyon. There was one proposal to place a dam just below Devils Corral, but nothing materialized.
In Lassen County’s 1968 General Plan it proposed to dam the Susan River at Devils Corral. It was the county’s belief that not only would be beneficial for irrigation, but for recreational purposes as well. The same report also proposed a dam on Willow Creek, just below Petes Creek. Of course, neither of those two propositions transpired.
In 1987, a proposal was made to dam the Susan River near Crazy Harry Gulch, about eight miles west of Susanville, for hydroelectric power. Tudor Engineering of San Francisco , proposed a 170 foot high dam, at a cost of $30 million. This, too, never materialized.