Mining is a tricky business and Hayden Hill was no exception. One of difficulties that plagued mine owners was water seepage. There was on one occasion that black damp occurred in one of mines there.

In late August 1917, J.M. Sutton quit his job at the Golden Eagle Mine. He cited the cause of the condition of black damp–a combination of noxious gases that form from the lack of ventilation which can be deadly. Sutton was not alone in his exodus, as many as fifty of his co-workers left. It was reported that only six men were still on the payroll, because of the offer higher wages as an inducement. Company officials stated they were working diligently to correct the problem to “raise the poisonous gases to the surface.”

Tim

On July 30, 1925, Frank Ross, 32, and Douglas Woodin, 15, were victims of a mine explosion at the Buckskin Mine at Hayden Hill. It was believed that Ross miscalculated his placement of dynamite, resulting in the explosion severely injured his face. Woodin on hearing the explosion gone down the mine shaft to investigate. Woodin was overcome by the noxious fumes and perished. The mine was owned by H.C. Watson, the cheese man of Big Valley.

Tim

Hayden Hill, located some fifty-five miles north of Susanville, was Lassen County’s largest mining community. Unlike its counterparts in California and Nevada, it was small in comparison. Like so many mining communities, Hayden Hill went through numerous boom and bust cycles.

Of course, in 1870 when word spread of the gold discovery miners flocked hoping to find a new “Comstock.” By the mid-1870s things had fizzled on the “Hill” as locals referred to it. In 1878, several major discoveries and the prospectors returned. For the next eight years it was Hayden Hill’s most prosperous times. It was followed by a downturn, then brief uptick, and continued that way. By 1909, Hayden Hill witnessed prosperity that it had not seen since the late 1870s. In 1910, a devastating fire wiped out a major portion of the town and it never fully recovered.

When Lassen Gold Mining revived operations during the early  1990s at Hayden Hill, the miners and their families did not reside there, many opting for Adin the nearest community. When Lassen Gold shut down in 1997, the open pit operation scared the landscape forever and its such a mess the entire “hill’ is fenced off.

Support

Richmond was a very short-lived mining community of the late 1850s and early1860s south of Susanville. Today, its best known for the Richmond Elementary School and the Diamond Mountain Golf Course.

In 1859, Frank Drake built a story and half log structure used as a store and hotel. The following year, with business booming, he built a two-story frame structure 30’x60’. The good times did not last long. By the end of 1862 with diminished gold from Hill and Lassen Creeks, along with the mining discoveries on the Humboldt and Comstock decimated the town. The hotel found a new life as a hay barn. On March 24, 1908 it was toppled over by a windstorm.

Tim

During extremely wet winters, come spring time, California and Nevada usually experience a mining bonanza, and locally it has occurred in this region. While, this was a wet winter in Lassen and Modoc, it was far from record breaking.

1907, on the other hand was a different story. It was a whiplash winter throughout California and Nevada with heavy rains, followed by heavy snows, and the scenario repeated itself. It caused a mini-gold rush with massive erosions in gullies and streams, exposing gold and other minerals. On Bass Hill between Susanville and Janesville one ravine along the road revealed gold nuggets. Thus, there was a prospector frenzy there, as well as the entire Bald Mountain. Spoonville native M.E. “Mul” Mulroney, noted that on that side of Bald Mountain a tunnel was made in hopes of gold ore, but found none.

It did not stop there. Discoveries were made just north of Susanville, on Antelope Grade. An unlikely spot was Skedaddle Mountain, where there was so much interest that caused for the creation of the Hot Springs Mountain Mining District, the last one of its kind in Lassen County. While nothing materialized there, one desert mountain seemed more promising—Fort Sage. Prospecting on Fort Sage continued for decades and I can personally attest. When my father passed away in 2002, while sorting through his paperwork, unbeknownst to me were several mining claims he had on Fort Sage.

Tim