Dry farming was slow to make its appearance around these parts. It slowly began in the early 1900s and timing could not have been better. The area was in a very wet cycle that lasted through 1916. The following is a 1911 account of dry farming in Lassen County.

”While much of the farming of the county is done dry, which is to say without irrigation, there is very little scientific dry farming. Indeed, it is all but unknown. However, a beginning has been made, in a few small farms in Honey Lake Valley, and in the Madeline Plains, where may be seen the most substantial evidence that it is profitable. Those who are interested in this form of farming may learn something to their profit by communicating  with Mr. Isaac Metcalf, whose address is Termo, Lassen County. Two years ago, Mr. Metcalf lost his all by fire. Coming then to the Madeline Plains without even a team of horses, he began dry farming on 160 acres, practicing the Campbell system. The first year, he cut from forty acres of barley 761 sacks averaging 110 pounds each; and from eight acres of rye ninety-six sacks averaging 130 pounds each. The same year, he turned five sows and their pigs, thirty-nine in all, upon a piece. of alfalfa a little less than two acres in size, upon which they made their living until winter. Then he fed them about one hundred sacks of barley, following which he killed thirty-one of them, these bringing him 3,800 pounds of cured meat. Mr. Metcalf now has a comfortable and pretty residence, a fine barn and other appurtenances, and a small but thriving young orchard of apples, pears, plums prunes, quince and a few grapes. He has no land to sell, but those who. see his place will agree with him that a fair valuation of his possessions is $5,000, all of it accumulated by two years dry farming.”

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This idyllic alpine lake photograph is dubbed as Eagle Lake, located near Termo. It is the featured photograph to the many wonders of the region, specifically, as the the seller points out to entice a buyer of a 20-acre ranch on the Madeline Plains. Asking price for the parcel is $18,000. The seller will even owner finance at 9% interest. So many interesting real estate offers to be found on the internet.

A number of years ago, while doing research in the Lassen County Assessor’s an interesting, yet not uncommon episode occurred. A man walked into the office, having flown all the way from London, England, to examine a parcel of land his uncle bequeathed him. Thus, the gentleman suffered from illusions of grandeur, for surely, California property must be worth gold! The staff at the Assessor’s Office attempted to explain that he inherited a twenty acre parcel on the Madeline Plains. Let’s just say the poor Brit spent more on making the overseas trip than what the property was worth.

Tim

Post Camp, was located on the south side of Observation Peak, NW 1/4 Section 9, T. 33 N. R. 16  E. The camp was established in the late 1870s, by George D. Winters of the Smoke Creek Ranch, who would later acquire the Shinn Ranch Located there were large stands of juniper and mountain mahogany used to make fence posts for both the Shinn and Smoke Creek Ranches. The place remained in public domain for a number of years.

In 1894, James “Juniper Jim” Rousell, also spelled as Russell arrived on the Madeline Plains, where he would live the rest of his life. In the late 1890s, he settled at Post Camp. According to folklore has it that he said the only way a person could survive there was to supplement their diet with juniper berries. In 1904, he acquired title to the property and sold it in 1912, to Virgile Galleron.

It should be noted that Rousell was married to Sarah Ellen McMurphy, a well known family of the era in the Honey Lake Valley.  They had six children, but the couple divorced in 1906. It should be noted they are both buried together in the Susanville Cemetery.

Tim

In 1870, Frank Eben Horne settled in the eastern section of the Madeline Plains, and became one of the first settlers of that region. Horne retired from the ranch in 1905, and moved to Auburn, Califoria. He had turned over the ranch to his sons, and due to some poor judgement lost the ranch in 1927.

There is a very small cemetery on the property, and for whatever unknown reason I neglected to transcribe the headstones. I will have to put that on my todo list this summer.

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