In 1891, Congress passed the Forest Reserve Act, the beginning of today’s national forest. It was a slow process to create individual forest reserves and even to change name to national forests.
At the December 29, 1902, the City Council (known as trustees then) meeting they took their first political stance and passed its first resolution, after all the city had only been existence less than two years. At issue was the federal government’s establishment of the Lassen Butte and Diamond Mountain Forest Reserves. The council, as was in the case of many municipalities and counties where large tracts of public timberlands were located, opposed the reserves for fear they would be detrimental in the case of future economic needs. The resolution stated in part: “Whereas the establishment of said Forest Reserves will be fatal to the prosperity of this Town; in that they are calculated: 1, to defer the investment of capital in this vicinity for the manufacture of lumber and other products; 2, to prevent the building of any railroad to connect this place with markets of the county; 3, to cause the surrender of all title lands within their limits to the Government, thereby greatly reducing the assessable property and public revenue there from.”