There were all kinds of social groups of days gone by, prior the advent to television and later the internet. The Lakeside Literary Club was a group of women comprised of the Tule District a region that encompassed the lower Susan River before it enters Honey Lake.

At the May 1922 meeting of the Lakeside Literary Club, Mrs. J.T. Barnes and Mrs. Erma Haley presented a lengthy report on the Eagle Lake Irrigation Project that was currently under construction. According, to the two women, Bly’s original plans were rather dramatic. Below is an excerpt:

”While spending a vacation at the summer home of the Gallatins at Eagle Lake, Mr. Leon Bly, an engineer from San Francisco, became interested in the possibilities of making some use of this large body of water. Thirsty land might be found and the ever increasing demand for electric power could be partially applied. He planned to take the water to the Sacramento Valley by means of tunnels connecting with the natural channel of the Feather River.”

The women noted that there were too many obstacles to overcome and Bly turned his sights on the Honey Lake Valley. While Bly’s initial proposal sounds farfetched, as late as the 1960s there were plans to divert Susan River into the Feather River drainage. That would be very simple to do.

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The following appeared in the Candelaria, Nevada newspaper about Capt. C.A. Merrill’s undertaking at Eagle Lake. (For those not familiar with Candelaria  was a mining town between Hawthorne and Tonopah.

Not only did Merrill plan to tap Eagle Lake for irrigation, but he planned for a major manufacturing city at Belfast. With the tunnel, along flumes, it was the intent to log the timber at Eagle Lake, float it across to the tunnel, where eventually using Willow Creek and a series of flumes, the logs would then be manufactured at Belfast. The enterprise was widely followed by the press in California and Nevada.

True Fissure, March 25, 1882:  “The Eagle Lake Tunnel. The tunnel to tap Eagle Lake is being advanced at the of thirty-five feet per week. It will be about a mile and half long, and it is expected that it will be completed next fall. It will furnish water power for running several sawmills and finally will irrigate a great area of now barren sagebrush land in Honey Lake Valley. The tapping of the lake is an experiment that is being watched with great interest everywhere on the coast. Should it prove as successful as is anticipated, it will be followed by a similar tapping of many lakes on both sides of the Sierra for mining, timbering and other purposes.”

Finally, a big thank you to Bill Johnson for sending along this article.

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In September 1913, construction of Malvena Gallatin’s summer home on the southeast corner of Eagle Lake was well underway. At that same time, her step-son, Albert Gallatin, Jr. hired Charles Caughell to survey bungalow sites on the lake’s south shore. He stated that the family had received requests from residents of San Francisco, as well as from Susanville. It was Gallatin’s intention not sell the lots, but rather give a 99 year lease. He also consulted with Lassen County Supervisor, L.R. Cady about the possibility of a new road to the south shore of Eagle Lake. Cady assured him he would do everything in his power to make it a reality. Neither the bungalow sites or road work transpired.

Tim