For over a fifty year stretch Susanville was home to two newspapers the Lassen Advocate and the Lassen Weekly Mail. Since 2020 the community is no longer served by a newspaper.

On October 25, 1886, the Mail made its debut on the streets of Susanville with Nevada newspaperman Benjamin M. Barney at its helm.  Barney, however, lacked capital for his new enterprise and made M.B. Bransford, a partner. In addition, he borrowed $1,088.38 from Robert Tremain to purchased a new printing press.  In 1891, Bransford became sole proprietor and  moved the printing office into the Masonic Building.

In 1893, the Masonic Building and much of Susanville’s business district was destroyed by fire. Bransford abandoned the newspaper, and Tremain who was still owed money for the printing press, took over the paper. Tremain’s son, Joseph Mellow operated the paper and eventually purchased his parent’s interest.

Tremain had newspaper experience, and even worked at a time as foreman of the Lassen Advocate. Tremain’s journalistic endeavors bordered on the mundane, with the exception of one big topic, the Red River Lumber Company. Tremain and Red River’s owners, the Walkers became real cozy. This paid big dividends, and the Mail published the inside scoop on all of Red River’s proposed activities.

In 1911, when Susanville was on the verge of tremendous growth, Tremain sold the newspaper, and soon ushered in the era of the Cook family, more about that later.

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Some people experience more life changing events than others. This was the case of Susanville’s founder Isaac Roop. In 1850, Roop was widowed at the age of 28 with three small children. In that same year, his brother who operated a store in the mining community of Shasta, California urged Isaac to come to California to operate the store temporarily, so he could return East and bring back his family out West. Isaac obliged and left his children in care of his in-laws and arrived in Shasta in September 1850. Tragedy struck again, for durng Josiah’s journey back East he died along the way. Isaac remained in Shasta with the store responsibility but also to probate his brother’s estate.

On June 14, 1853, Shasta was destroyed by fire and Roop found himself destitute. He then set out on the Nobles Trail to seek a location for the establishment of a trading post and came upon the Honey Lake Valley. In September 1853, Roop claimed the land that eventually became Susanville and returned to Shasta for the winter. The following summer, Roop along with his brother Ephraim, built a log cabin and established his trading post. Eventually, it evolved  into the town of Susanville where he lived the rest of his life, passing away from pneumonia on Valentine’s Day 1869.

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Located at the west end of Susanville is Quarry Street, so named for a stone quarry there that was discovered in 1860. The bluff at that part of town, better known as Inspiration Point, is fault block caused by volcanic upheaval. That upheaval created a deposit of rhyolite tuff.  It is an ideal building material, because it is light weight, and can easily be sculptured. In 1862, H.F. Thompson began the development of a quarry, Some of its first uses was for headstones, the largest being for the grave of Captain William Weatherlow who died in 1864. In 1863, Miller & Kingsley had the first stone building constructed from the quarry. The last major use of the quarry was in the 1930s to construct the Spalding home on Quarry Street.

Here is an interesting tidbit. On July 3, 1883, W.P. Hall sold for $700 to Lassen County rights to the quarry for the needs of the county. In 1887, the county built a small stone building adjacent to the courthouse for a Hall of Records. When the new courthouse was completed in 1917, the Hall of Records building was dismantled and the stone was used to build the Susanville City Jail. By the 1950s, the jail was no longer used and it was converted into a garage and subsequently torn down in 2000.

Tim

This is a tale of two Susans—Susan Parker Nobles and Susan Roop Arnold. While the two women never met, one has a river named for one Susan and the other a town, i.e. Susan River and Susanville.

First we begin with Susan River. During the years 1851-1852, William H. Nobles located a new emigrant road from Shasta, California to Lassen’s Meadows, Nevada. This road passed through the Honey Lake Valley. Nobles named the Susan River for his wife, Susan Parker Nobles.  Very little is known about Susan  Nobles. She resided in Minnesota for the majority of her married life, only moving to California when her husband, Nobles, died in 1876.

Susanville was officially named on March 17, 1859 when the  Susanville Post Office was established with Isaac Roop the first postmaster. It was so named after Roop’s daughter, Susan. When her father came to California in 1850, she was left in care of her maternal grandparents. In 1862, at the age of nineteen, Susan left her grandparents home in Ohio and moved to California to be with her father. On December 27, 1864, Susan married Alexander T. Arnold and spent the rest of her life in the community that was named after her. She passed away on July 22, 1921, at the age of 79.

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When Susanville incorporated as a city in 1900, its eastern boundary was Weatherlow Street. In 1920, annexation of Halltown and the East Addition was discussed, but no action was taken. With continued growth east of the city limits annexation efforts failed. In 1947 that finally changed when voters approved an annexation. The City’s Main Street now extended from Weatherlow to Fairfield, and additional eleven blocks.

Everyone had guessed what the Greater Susanville population was, but no one knew exactly. After the approval of the annexation, the City requested the U.S. Census to conduct an official count. This was important, for the City needed that information to provide it to federal and state authorities for allocation of tax funds based on population. A census was conducted on April 30, 1948, and it showed there were 5,358 inhabitants.

In 2023, the population was 11,593.

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The spring of 1923 brought a new surprise when the store clerks of Susanville organized, but not as a labor union. On May 3, 1923 the Clerks Co-operative Association was organized with an initial membership of twenty-two. Harry Coleman as selected as Chairman and Fannie Winchester as Secretary.

The first item on the agenda, was a committee of five were appointed to meet with the merchants to have uniform closing hours. It was their desire to close at 6:30 p.m.. during the summer and 6:00 p.m. in the winter. Another item, was to aid each other to improve salesmanship skills. Finally, it was their desire to work in harmony with the merchants.

Tim