On September 19, 1935 a Technical Institute course in forestry was offered at Lassen College. There was a lot of enthusiasm for the new course, not just from the college, but the timber industry who would benefit by its graduates. However, there were critics who thought the initial cost to implement it was expensive compared to other traditional vocational courses.

By the time the second semester began word had spread and there was tremendous interest from outside the region. When the fall semester of 1936 began the enrollment at the college had nearly doubled which was attributed to the forestry program. It was a turning point for the college. For the school to thrive it would need to seek out students from other areas, as the local tributary schools was not sufficient enough for the college to expand.

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Awhile back I wrote about Lassen College’s first student newspaper the Jaysee. It turns out a few years earlier that the college had a publication called the Lassen Jay-See. On December 17, 2000 Francis “Fritz” Riddell sent me a copy for the archives. It was Vol. 1 No. 2 dated March 1938. It contained twenty-six pages of short stories by the students and fourteen pages of local advertisers to support the endeavor.

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It is September, which is traditional back to school time, though these days in California many schools start their fall session in mid-August. The students at Ash Valley undertook an unusual social studies project. In September 1936, they entered a wild flower exhibit at the California State Fair. The exhibit contained 60 different varieties, 20 of which were found in the school yard. For their efforts they received as trophy as they placed third in the competition in this particular division. The students who prepared the exhibit were: Grace Bath, John Bath, Martha Bath, Patricia Nixon and Mary Lou Nixon.

For those not familiar with Ash Valley it is located between Adin and Madeline.

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In 1871, the residents of Big Valley on the Lassen County side, petitioned the Lassen County Board of Supervisors for a school district there. While there was a public school in Adin, that was under the jurisdiction of Siskiyou County, as Modoc County had not yet been created. The Big Valley residents were included the Willow Creek Valley School District and that school house was nearly forty miles away. With that thought in mind, the petition stated, “It is frequently impossible for their children to attend school on account of high water, deep snows muddy roads, etc.” The petition was signed by seventeen residents and combined they had twenty children eligible for school. The Board obliged and created the Providence School District on November 10, 1871. A school house was built two miles south of Adin. In 1953, the school was annexed to the Adin Joint Unified District. The school house then became the property of the Providence Farm Bureau.

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