It was not until the 1920s that the Red River Lumber Company experienced problems with forest fires. Some time back I wrote about that company’s fire train. On July 27, 1926, a fire started at Butt Valley where Red River was logging. This was one instant that while the fire train was dispatched it was no match for the inferno. Continue reading Prattville Burn
While my Red River series covers a tremendous amount of material on the Red River Lumber Company, there were some topics were not addressed. In 1938, the topic of controlled burns was being discussed, as the company had done it in its earliest years until Clinton Walker’s departure in 1913. Below is an excerpt of a 1938 memo Clinton wrote to the Board and the experience of a control burn at Lake Almanor. Continue reading Control Burns
In 1878, Edward Weed took over as editor and publisher of the Lassen Advocate. He brought a lot of life to the newspaper. From time to time he would make excursions and write about those experiences. This is one of them. The reader will note the sawmill on Diamond Mountain. At any given time there were two to as many four mills along the mountain range between Gold Run and Janesville. Continue reading Richmond, 1878
The barn was destroyed by fire the night of June 16, 2015. A transient caused the fire from a cigarette, thought to be extinguished, but that was not the case.
Routinely, when I am out and about someone will ask me a question about this or that. In many instances, I am able to provide an answer. Every now and then I get stumped with a doozey. In this particular instant, it was the old barn at the east end of Susanville, just past McDonald’s.
The barn sits like a lone sentinal these days. There used to be a small white painted caretaker’s house there, occupied for a number of years by Grant and Lena Trumbull. One of the oddities about the barn is it is far removed from any ranch. After extensive sleuthing it was built in 1920/21 for the Fruit Growers Supply Company, who were in the midst of constructing their new sawmill/box factory nearby. Continue reading That Old Barn Update
While I have wrote about Fruit Growers Supply Company and Red River Lumber Company and their operations, its time to include another major lumber mill, Lassen Lumber & Box Company Continue reading Lassen Lumber & Box Company
It many aspects it is one of Red River Lumber Company’s most unusual and significant logging camps. For the most part, Red River camps were given numbers and not names. It was by far the largest and many of its building were a permanent nature versus the portable. Continue reading Camp Bunyan
On January 29, 1912 a contract was signed in San Francisco that would forever change Lassen County. On that historic date, T.B. Walker signed an agreement with the Southern Pacific for the construction of the Fernley & Lassen Railroad.
T.B. Walker with his need for a railroad transformed Lassen County in countless ways. It brought an era prosperity that has seen before or since. The huge influx of population provided a huge market for the local farmers and ranchers. Take for instance, there was not a single dairy, by 1920 there fifteen.
Of course, if opened the door to the timber industry, and transformed Susanville in a major lumber manufacturing center. What was thought with sustained yield and other forestry practices it was believed that it would remain the dominant industry for well over a hundred years if not more. Within fifty years, the writing was on the wall, and Lassen County’s citizens sought a new industry—prisons.
In future posts we will explore those exciting times, as well as T.B. Walker.
The winter of 1923-24, was one of the driest on record in California. That summer another record would be broken–forest fires. It was June, 1924, when the Red River Lumber Company having been in operation for over a decade experienced its first major forest fire. The fire broke out at Chester Flats between Camps 34 and 38 and burned a narrow strip of land, eight miles in length. Red River’s loss was minimal as the fire burned recently logged over land and the only significant damage was 500 cords of wood burned along 1,000 feet of railroad track. Red River considered its biggest loss was to the men fighting the fire which cost the company a $1,000 a day in wages, and it took a week to contain the fire. Continue reading Westwood’s Fire Train
In the spring of 1857, Ephraim Roop, Isaac Roop, and William McNaull constructed the first sawmill in Lassen County, along the Susan River at a place that would later become known as Hobo Camp. In November 1860, Perry Craig fell out of a boat at the millpond and drowned. Craig was buried on top of the hillside near the river, and from that episode the Susanville Cemetery was created. On August 18, 1862, Roop & Company sold the mill to Luther Spencer for $200. Spencer operated the mill until it was destroyed by fire in the spring of 1868.
In honor of my father’s birthday, this post will be brief. He began his logging career working at Camp Harvey. His next venture was with his brother James, and they formed Purdy Brothers Logging. This grew into a larger outfit known as Susanville Logging. Circumstances beyond his control saw that company dissolved in the early 1960s. The next re-incarnation was L&M Logging. Just some random related photographs for your enjoyment. Continue reading Susanville Logging