In 1897 and 1898 the Warm Springs and Junction Schools were formally declared closed by the Superintendent of Schools.  Due to that circumstance, no school existed in the extreme southern portion of Lassen County. In 1904, F.C. McDiarmid petitioned the County Superintendent of Schools, J.F. Dixon, to form a new school district in the southernmost portion of Lassen County.  McDiarmid cited there were 21 school age children in the proposed district and that the majority of these children resided more than ten miles from the nearest schoolhouse.  McDiarmid’s petition was submitted on March 14^th and required urgent attention.  State law required all new districts be formed before the 5^th of April of any year.  Dixon urged the Board of Supervisors to approve the District and noted that the Board would need to hold a special meeting to meet the State deadline.  The Board of Supervisors held a special meeting on April 4^th, with three members in attendance, and approved the formation of the Constantia School District.  The District boundaries included the Constantia Ranch and all the territory south to the Sierra County line.

In the fall of 1904, school commenced in the old Warm Springs schoolhouse near Red Rock Station.  In the summer of 1914, that schoolhouse was destroyed by fire.  The next year, the District held a special election to move the site of the school to the A. Wills homestead near Chat.  In 1944, the school closed and annexed Long Valley.

Alfred Montgomery (1857-1922) gave this name to his isolated home in eastern Honey Lake Valley. Montgomery was not your typical homesteader. He was a painter, and referred to as the “farmer artist.” It has been stated that his paintings of corn were so realistic that birds would swoop down and peck at his canvas. It was Montgomery’s intention to raise a variety of vegetables at this place, using them as subjects for future paintings. Montgomery was known for his itinerant ways, drifting across the United States, and sporadically residing at his Nowhere homestead from 1911, through 1919. Locally, Montgomery’s legacy to the region came in 1911 when he gave a lecture and art exhibition in Susanville—the proceeds established the art department at Lassen High School.

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Ash Valley is one of those hidden gems tucked away between the communities of Adin and Madeline. When it was settled in the early 1870s the majority of its population consisted of old bachelors. Changes were on the horizon, new settlers with families began to arrive. In 1876, the Lassen County Board of Supervisors approved the Ash Valley School District, there being some fifteen plus school age children there. Shortly thereafter the residents built a school house.

World War I had a major impact on the rural areas of Lassen County and this was readily apparent in Ash Valley, as the school closed its doors in 1919 for a luck of students. It would go through several openings and closures over the next twenty years. In 1938, John Bath and Martha Bath were the last students to graduate. In 1941, the school closed for good.

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