Tag Archives: Fruit Growers Supply Company

History

A Negative Question In A Good Way

2 Comments
Negative envelope from A.H. Bosworth, a Fall River Mills merchant.

Every day is a new learning process and some times I grasp what is in front of me, other times it just takes a bit longer to learn something new. One of my quandaries for some time is the scanning of old photograph negatives. I mean old, not your typical 35mm or 2 1/4x 21/4. These negatives are 6 inches by 3 inches, plus some other sizes, from the 1910s and 1920s.

I have thousands of negatives from that time period. For example I have nearly 1,000 negatives of professional photographer O.O. Winn taken from 1920 to 1923 of the construction and initial operations of the Fruit Growers Supply Company. I have hundreds of Lola L. Tanner’s negatives from 1915-1925 of Eagle Lake and Willow Creek Valley.  Recently, Richard Goudy of Chico asked for assistance with his family photographs of the time era mentioned that are of the Milford and Westwood areas.

My question is does any one have any experience with this, or know some one that has?

Thanks.

 

 

History

A Lonely Job

1 Comment
George Moore digging out a speeder at Camp 10, January 10, 1952.

Fruit Growers Supply Company’s Camp 10, located in Pine Creek Valley, west of Eagle Lake was a lively outpost from spring through fall, where over 200 people called it home. For a time it could even boast its own voting precinct. Yet, when the logging season ended, Camp 10 was de-populated, except for one lone soul. A caretaker was hired to keep an eye on everything. In the winter of 1951-52, George Moore was Camp 10 sole resident. The position would soon be eliminated as at the end of the 1952 logging season Camp 10 closed for good.

Subscribe!

Camp 10 cabins, January 10, 1952.
History

Fruit Growers Supply Company

Leave a comment

Fruit Growers Supply Company, 1921
Today’s featured photograph is train load of logs arriving at the Fruit Growers Supply Company mill in Susanville. It was taken in 1921, the same year the plant opened. Notice how very little had been developed nearby. Two buildings with a Tudor style like facade were the office and dining hall. Today it is now the site of Riverside Park.

Donate!

History

Name that mountain – The answer

Leave a comment

October 13, 2017

Antelope Mountain on the west side of Eagle Lake. On July 28, 1924 a fire broke out from a steam donkey engine of the Fruit Growers Supply Company near Camp D. In the aftermath Fruit Growers constructed fire lines. The Lassen National Forest sent a bill to Fruit Growers for $156,000. In a negotiated settlement Fruit Growers agreed to replant 2,000 acres of forest service land and to contribute $1,500 annually for a ten year period for reforestation.

History

Changing Times

1 Comment

Fruit Growers and Lassen Lumber in their glory days.
Lassen Lumber & Box was the first large scale lumber company established in Susanville in 1918. Forty-five years later, it was history. The economic depression of the 1930s took a toll on the company, and never truly recovered. In 1951, it began the liquidation process and its neighbor, Fruit Growers Supply Company, purchased it and when the last logs were milled, it shut down. Fruit Growers purchased it for the water rights, as they thought about converting their nearby sawmill into a paper/pulp plant. After all, in 1955 Fruit Grower’s co-operative members would switch entirely from wood to cardboard, except for picking boxes.

This added fuel to the debate that the area’s economy needed to diversify, for one day the sawmill industry would become a thing of the past. This opened the subject for debate about attracting a state prison to the area.

Subscribe!

History

Fruit Growers comes to Susanville

Leave a comment

Fruit Growers Supply Company, 1922.
In the fall of 1919, Susanville was filled with excitement when the Fruit Growers Supply Company accepted the residents offer of $40,000 to locate their lumber mill in that community. It was not all that long ago, when they had lost the opportunity of the Red River Lumber Company to locate there. To understand how big a windfall to have Fruit Growers is that the company would initially employ 1,500 people, more than the population of Susanville.

Subscribe!

History

Camp B – Fruit Growers

2 Comments
Camp B
Camp B

When Fruit Growers established their Lassen Operation they purchased two billion board feet of timber to the west of Eagle Lake. In 1921, Fruit Growers established its second logging camp, designated as Camp B. Many of their camps were portable in nature, in that once an area was logged, the cabins and other buildings could be conveniently be put on railroad cars and moved to the next location.

log train Camp B
Train load of logs leaving Camp B

Camp B was unique as it was a mixture of both portable and permanent buildings. It was one of their largest camps that could house over 300 men. While the camp closed by 1926, its concrete foundations for the commissary, along with other remnants can still be seen today. Fruit Growers had a reputation of taking good care of their employees. This was evident at Camp B whereby motion pictures were shown. In addition, the logging camps even had their own baseball teams. This is rather amazing since these men who worked ten to twelve hours a day, six days a week still had the energy left to play ball.