In 1977 Art Wilcox wrote a small publication Fishing the Lassen Country.  The publication’s main focus is the area surrounding Lassen Volcanic National Park. Wilcox did make an exception and included Eagle Lake and below are his tips for fishing that lake.

“Eagle Lake is not within the Lassen area, but is near enough to be appropriately included. This beautiful, natural lake, and its big, one of kind specie of trout is about an hours drive from Chester. The turn-off north from 36-44 is three miles west of Susanville. The 12 miles of this road, Highway A-1, are paved but has some 12 percent grades. They do not appear to bother those towing large trailers and boats in and out, so must be of no consequence. Four campgrounds, including the huge 204 space Merrill, are located at the South end of the lake. There is a store and full service marina, accommodating all types of boats. Some people fish by wading out and casting hardware or nitecrawlers. Trolling is far more effective. Nitecrawlers behind attractor blades to be the most popular method of rigging, but all sorts of lures and combinations of terminal gear are used. The fish are large. Three or four will usually. make up the weight limit. Tackle should be considered accordingly. Don’t fool with four pound test line here, unless you are an expert with a fish on light equipment.”

Tim

This a view of Eagle Lake from Dow Butte that is located northwest of Spalding Tract. A forest service lookout was constructed there in 1939. It was removed in 1994, and can viewed at the Eagle Lake Marina.

William Dow first settled near present day Spalding Tract in 1875. Shortly, thereafter his nephew, John Spalding also located there. Dow sold out to Albert Gallatin 1886.

Tim

It was on May 4, 1961, when the Stone family sold their ranch at the north end of Eagle Lake to the Five Dot Land & Cattle Company. In 1926, Coit and Laura Stone had purchased the ranch from William and Roseanna Troxel. Apparently, none of the Troxel’s three sons wanted the Eagle Lake property.

It should be noted the Stone family retained their shoreline property on the northwest side of Eagle Lake. In October 1961 Stone’s Subdivision Unit 1 was placed on the market. The entire Stone’s Subdivision comprises 270 acres divided into 244 lots.

Tim

In the spring of 1920, W.G. Devereux, a consulting engineer was hired by a San Francisco construction firm, the latter was interested in submitting a bid for Leon Bly’s tunnel at Eagle Lake.  Not only did Devereux inspect the proposed tunnel, he examined Merrill’s old tunnel. This would prove somewhat beneficial of the geological formation. He stated that had Merrill’s tunnel been completed it would have been a complete failure, as it was so poorly planned.

As to the Bly Tunnel, Devereux wrote: “The proposition is feasible and while under the present high price of labor and material the work will be expensive.  It can be constructed within a reasonable time and the people interested in getting the water on their lands are very fortunate in being able to secure these proposed works at the price per acre agreed upon.”

His observation was a bit off. One it took a lot longer than expected to construct it, only to discover different geological features not found in the Merrill Tunnel.

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This sounds a little far-fetched to me, but the following appeared in Lassen Advocate on May 19, 1922 with the latest update on the construction of Bly Tunnel.

”An interesting circumstance in connection with the tunnel work is the fact that mules are used therein to haul cars used to convey the excavated materials to the incline. These mules were taken down the incline last fall and have remained underground continuously ever since, except a short time ago one of them became slightly indisposed and was brought to the surface for treatment. Upon reaching the surface and encountering the strong light of day, the mule apparently became panic stricken and cavorted around in an unusual manner for some time and finally backed up to the mouth of the incline and descended downward to the tunnel level, holding on to the slats or steps with his front feet. He is now back on the job and will probably stay until the tunnel is completed.”

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Initial work on Bly’s Eagle Lake tunnel began on the Willow Creek side, just as Merrill did before him. By the spring of 1922, rumor was circulating that there were problems with the construction of the tunnel. In May, J.F. Blakemore, the superintendent for Grant Smith Co., the tunnel contractor, invited residents to Eagle Lake for a picnic, as work had not started on the lake side. When some of his guests questioned him about the rumors, Blakemore denied it and that everything was going smooth and the tunnel would be completed in time.

A year later with the approaching completion of the tunnel, the story had changed. The initial plans called for the tunnel to tap the lake forty below its surface. That was later renegotiated to eight to nine feet below the surface. In February 1923, Grant Smith encountered solid rock for the last portion of tunnel which put the project behind schedule. In the end, Grant Smith only tapped the lake three feet below the surface of the lake. This was totally unacceptable and did not provide sufficient water flow. The matter would be litigated. The Baxter and Tule Irrigation Districts, owners of the tunnel, would spend the next ten years deepening the tunnel inlet.

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In the early 1900s there was a new battle as to who would gain control of Eagle Lake to tap it via a tunnel to irrigate the Honey Lake Valley. To be quite honest, attorneys benefited the most. While sifting through the archives, during a very cold and dry January, I came across a most unusual 1906 report about how the Lassen Willow Creek Water Company and its plans to exploit Eagle Lake. More about that in a future post. However, there was a certain aspect about water diversions that were never made public. If you happened to be named Martin, this story will particularly appeal to you.

In 1905, the Lassen Willow Creek Water Company was formed and unlike their predecessors they viewed Eagle Lake as a reservoir. In the fall of 1906, the company consulted with San Francisco Civil Engineer, Marsden Manson, who was involved with Hetch Hetchy. In Manson’s report of October 29, 1906 he wrote that to permanently increase the flow into Eagle Lake it would be necessary to divert portions of the headwaters of Susan River into Pine Creek. It was his opinion the run off of the Susan River is wasted flowing into Honey Lake. It would cost less than $10,000 to construct the diversion canal. Manson’s report was never made public, the water users of Susan River would never allow it.* Of course, this never materialized and by this time the Lassen Willow Creek Water Company was on the verge of imploding.

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*Thanks go to Hardin “Finn” Barry and his daughter, Betty Barry Deal for preserving this document, and so much more.

Some years have a way for things to come together and that was the case for Spaulding Tract. On May 21, 2005 a dedication ceremony was held for the new $2.5 million Spaulding Marina.

In 2004, the property owners there approved to build a sewer system at an approximate cost of $10 million, which the community’s cost would be $8.8 million. In May 2005 it was announced that the Spaulding Tract Community Service District received a $1.8 million grant from the USDA as a part of rural development. With everything in place that summer they were ready to accept bids for the construction.

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