Chester, California, 1914. Courtesy of Dolores Gasperoni
On April 26, 1894, the Chester Post Office was established at Burwell Johnson’s establishment, which included a saloon plus rooms for travelers. Johnson’s was located at the base known today as Johnson Grade on Highway 36, approximately where the causeway begins. The post office was named after Chester, Vermont, former home of the Jonathan Martin family, Johnson’s neighbors, who were instrumental in the development of Chester.
In the early 1900s, the Great Western Power Company began acquisition of properties of Big Meadows, which it was their intent to construct a reservoir for hydro-power development. This they did, and the reservoir is known today as Lake Almanor. The Martins along with their neighbors Olsen sold their properties to Great Western Power, retaining everything about 4500 elevation contour. In 1911, Edith Martin hired Everett M. Cameron to survey and subdivide her property and thus, the town of Chester was born.
Chester Market, circa 1915. Courtesy of Hazel York Moller
George McDow, Jr. was born in Susanville in 1910, which that community was the verge on boom times, that never was replicated. George wrote his memoirs about those experience those twenty years. He spent considerable time at Chester during summer of 1924. George wrote:
“The only store in Chester was operated by Jack Wardlow, who also had a dance hall next-door to the store. On Saturday nights and some holidays he would stage public dances. These attracted a lot of people from Westwood, even some Greenville and Susanville. The law in the area consisted of a Plumas County Deputy Sheriff. He had his hands full on Saturday nights jut keeping the peace, with no time to hassle the bootleggers, who sat in their cars, a few yards away in the dark and dispensed flasks of moonshine to the thirsty dancers, or anyone else who cared to imbibe. I soon learned that by arising early Sunday mornings, I would take a gunnysack, walk along the old split rail fences, which were then along Chester’s Main Street, and I could pick up nearly a sack-full empty flasks. It was not hard to find the town’s chief moonshine merchant. He would pay what I considered a fair price for my collection of empties. This provided me with spending money for fish hooks and occasional ice cream cone.”
Since it is August, one of my favorite outings is a venture to Plumas Pines Resort on the west short of Lake Almanor, in the area referred to as Prattville. This, Prattville is not to be confused with the original town of Prattville that was destroyed in 1914 to make way for Lake Almanor. This current Prattville had its humble origins dating back to 1916. It was none other than the forest service who offered 88 lots for a special use permit fee of ten dollars a year..
In 1932, Adelaide and Fred Smith established the Plumas Pines Resort. The Smith’s operated it for the next twenty years. Since that time it has had numerous owners, but its always worthy a visit.
Indian Valley Railroad. Courtesy of the Plumas County Museum
One of the biggest issues T.B. Walker had against the Red River Lumber Company’s location at Westwood, was it lacked a railroad link directly to California. For a time there was a glimmer hope with the Indian Valley Railroad.
On June 30, 1916, the Indian Valley Railroad (IVR) was incorporated to build a line from Paxton on the Western Pacific Railroad to the Engel Copper Mine near Taylorsville–a distance of 21 miles. Sixteen months later the rail line was completed. It should be noted, that it was originally proposed as a narrow gauge line, but Willis Walker of the Red River Lumber Company objected. After all, Walker was keen enough to see the possibilities for a link to Westwood, and with that would force the Southern Pacific Railroad to be more competitive in their rates.
Early on the IVR had its sights on Westwood. In 1918 a survey was made to extend the line to Westwood was conducted, With Red River’s main branch logging railroad extending along the east shore of Lake Almanor to Canyon Dam, there was not much territory separating the two lines. In 1927 a request was sent to the Interstate Commerce Commission to put in this proposed line to be known as the Northern California Railroad. It was rejected. However, in the works was the Western Pacific and Great Northern Railroads to connect their respective lines with a new railroad from Keddie, Plumas County to Klamath Falls, Oregon. This was approved in 1930, and Red River Lumber Company would finally have a second railroad connection it had always sought.
On August 4, 1857, the Plumas County Board of Supervisors created the Honey Lake Valley Township. The action did not set well with the Honey Lakers who met to protest the Township action on August 29, 1857. (It was originally presumed that the Honey Lake Valley was not a part of the State of California—a logical theory that the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range created a natural eastern boundary.) As a result of this meeting , a resolution was adopted opposing any control of Plumas County over the affairs of Honey Lake Valley.
After this event a piece of popular local folklore began, as to Honey Lakers evaded paying taxes to any one. The news of the Honey Lakers’ meeting had spread and the Marysville Express newspaper of Marysville, California reported: “The citizens of Honey Lake Valley, are for the most part violently opposed as ever by the exercise of any jurisdiction over them by the authorities of Honey Lake Valley. There is, however, some with some inconsistency in their conduct, for when the tax collector of Plumas County came among them, they told him that they were in not in California, but in Utah. Orson Hyde from Salt Lake visited them, they said they lived in California.”
It should be noted Mormon Apostle Orson Hyde was sent to form a Mormon settlement, known today as Genoa, Nevada. The Honey Lakers reluctantly agreed and paid their Plumas County property taxes. Of course, there are those who do not, and this happens every year. Honey Lakers were not tax evaders per se, but they. were disgruntled with Plumas County because during the winter months they were cut off from the county.
But the Marysville newspaper makes a great story, that is repeatedly told from one generation to the next without any veracity.
Another interesting piece of trivia was the 1860 US Census. Honey Lake Valley was included in the Plumas County head count. However, to the south, Long Valley was included in Washoe County, Utah Territory.
While searching through files concerning railroad passenger service between Keddie and Klamath Falls, I came across the following account, that I thought some might find of interest
On September 22 and 23, 1934, a special excursion train sponsored by the Plumas County Chamber of Commerce went from Keddie to Klamath Falls. At Bieber, Lizzie Durfee and Ellen Elliott boarded the train to its final destination at Klamath Falls and the following is their published report.
Big Valley Gazette, Bieber, California — 4 October 1934: “This excursion was the first passenger train to leave Big Valley since the dedication of the railroad three years ago. Big Valley waited fifty years for the railroad, but there is no passenger service yet. Of course, there are better roads and the automobile, so we do not miss the train service too much.
“The excursion left Bieber about eleven o’clock Saturday morning. It was a little chilly but the cars were comfortable and the crowd was sociable and friendly.
”A stop was made at Merrill going up and the excursionists listened to a recital of the resources of Tule Lake section that seemed almost incredible. Space does not allow a detailed account but the crops and stock produced for disposal this year totals over $4,000,000. As a souvenir of the good will of the people of Merrill. each excursionist was presented with a ten pund box of potatoes of the best variety grown in that section.
”Klamath Falls was reached about 3 o’clock and courtesy cars took the visitors around the city and showed them the vantage points, and the growth and expected development of that busy bit little city.
”The banquet that evening was a pleasant affair where everybody visited with his neighbor on either side of him and across the table. Of course there were speakers of good will and friendliness and the banquet ended with everyone in the best of humor.
”The return home was uneventful and arrived back in Bieber six Sunday evening.”
It should be noted that nearly 200 people participated in the event.
This is one of those Ebay items I came across. I am not sure what caught my attention the illustration itself, or the description on the reverse. “Lake Almanor, Plumas Co., Calif, is an artificial lake 20 miles long and covers 30,000 acre valley surrounded by heavy timbered mountains affording the finest wild game and deer hunting in the West. Since 1913, after completion of the dam which was begun in 1906, Lake Almanor stores 1,300,000 acre feet of water which contains Rainbow Trout weighing up to 16 pounds.”
While there is no date, these types of color linen postcards were popular in the 1940s and early 1950s.
Long before Chester’s big July 4, celebration, the first major special event that helped bring awareness to the fledgling community of Chester was a rodeo. In 1920, McKenzie & Stover sponsored the first rodeo in Chester at the Stover Ranch, and it was held there for the next eighteen years. Within a short time it became quite popular, initially attracting about a thousand spectators. As the word spread, by the early 1930s the crowds had swelled to between 2500 and 3000.
If the word-of-mouth advertisement was not enough to entice a person to attend, how could one not go wrong after reviewing this promotional literature of the event? “Cowboys, broncos wild steers, Indians, thrills, action and the shores of Lake Almanor takes on a scene of the old frontier. The wild west days of yore live and breathe in the 15th annual Chester Rodeo Pageant, Sunday July 28.
”Suddenly, like the roaring echo of Mount Lassen, the calm little logging hamlet, banked on either side by the tranquility of pine covered thickets of the Sierras, burst forth in gala Cowboy Rodeo Fashion almost overnight. A Cowboy’s curdling yipes-prancing cow ponies-the whirl of lariats-the snort of wild-steers careening, untamable broncos-strong wooden gates and corrals, wheezing and groaning with impending mass of animal flesh-a cloud of dust cheering grandstands; lack-a-day friends, it’s rodeo time.
”Join the throngs as they sit side by side in the tense moment, viewing the spectacle! Feel the thrills of your favorite cowboy. Give voice to your emotions as a wild bull bites the dust and is tamed to the tune of a husky cowboy’s bull-dogging yodel! Be red-blooded American and rejoice as history of the old wild west repeats itself. Plan now to have the adventure of a lifetime.”
In 1938, Stover & McKenzie held their last Chester Rodeo. It should be noted two years later saw the dissolutioon of that venerable partnership.
Crystal Lake, Plumas County, 1914, is a Stinson photograph—-C.R. Caudle Collection
Robert Stinson was born in Quincy, Plumas County in 1882, and followed in his father’s footsteps as a commercial photographer. It was a tough trade to operate a business in a rural region. So like many others it became necessary to be itinerate traveling from community to community for business. In 1913, Red River hired Stinson as their company photographer, who at the time was located in Red Bluff. Stinson’s main job was to make a complete photographic inventory of all the buildings being constructed in the town, as well as the sawmill plant. A portion of this collection exists in the T.B. Walker papers housed with the Minnesota Historical Society. Stinson just happened to be at the right place at the right time, when Lassen Peak set off a series of volcanic eruptions beginning in 1914. Unfortunately, for Stinson and other photographers such as P.J. Thompson, were overshadowed by that B.F. Loomis, but that is another story, for another time. Stinson stay at Westwood was brief and left Red River in 1915 to be replaced Otto Kratzer. On a final note, Red River always had an in-house photographer, though they also hired others for commercial work.
Robert Stinson’s grave at the Westwood Cemetery.
For reasons not known when Stinson passed away in 1932, he was buried in the Westwood Cemetery.
In the early 1900s when Great Western Power Company began the purchases of property at Big Meadows, Plumas County to transform it into a reservoir known today as Lake Almanor, residents and visitors alike found the company was a not a friendly neighbor. Initially, Great Western required a person to obtain a permit to fish and/or camp on their lands. This had to be done at there San Francisco office. In 1908, they changed their policy and prohibited fishing and camping on their properties at Big Meadows.
A correspondent to the Plumas National Bulletin newspaper of June 29, 1908 informed readers that there were places in and around Big Meadows that visitors would still enjoy. The writer noted, “Among the streams in Big Meadows and adjacent thereto in which it is lawful to fish and on whose banks it is lawful to camp are Hamilton Branch in the canyon before it enters the swamp lands of the east arm of Big Meadows purchased by the Great Western Power Company for a reservoir site..” The correspondent continued since Prattville was the gateway to the National Forest Reserves there were plenty of nearby streams and lakes which visitors could enjoy.
