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 acquisitions of properties of Big Meadows, which it was their intent to construct a reservoir for hydro power development. This they did, and known today as Lake Almanor.  The Martin and Olsen families 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.

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The defunct town of Prattville was quite the place prior to being displaced by Lake Almanor. Prior to Lake Almanor, it was known as Big Meadows, and a popular summer hang out, especially those from the Sacramento Valley, escaping the heat, after all this is pre-air conditioning days.

In 1898, Frank Sorsoli purchased Baccala’s Prattville Saloon.  Business was good. There being a lack of hotel accommodations, Sorsoli decided to build one. In May 1908, construction began on Sorsoli’s $10,000 twenty-eight guest room hotel.  But the operation was short-lived. A fire of suspicious origin on July 3, 1909 wiped out most of the town of Prattville, the Sorsoli Hotel was a casualty.

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Antelope Lake in Plumas County is a popular recreational spot for a number of Honey Lake residents. It is part of the State Water Project of the California Department of Water Resources. The projects original intent was to provide water to Southern California to augment that of the Colorado River. Created in 1960, it has 21 dams and over 700 miles of canals, pipelines and tunnels.

Antelope Lake is part of the project. The 113 foot tall earthen dam was constructed in 1964. It has a surface area of 931 acres with a maximum capacity of 47,466 acre feet.

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Juniper Lake, at an elevation of 6,753 feet, covers an area of some 592 acres, making it the largest lake in Lassen Volcanic National Park. Interestingly the lake has a maximum depth of 234 feet. In the 1870s, the California State Geological Survey named it Lake Louise, but others had applied Juniper to it, and the latter won out.

Early day visitors to the lake were few. Its remoteness, along with its heavy winter snowfalls, usually did not make it accessible until June. By October, as a general rule, the snow returned, again making the place inhospitable. Continue reading Juniper Lake →