Alpine Hotel, located on Alexander Avenue, was a dormitory for the employees of the Lassen Lumber & Box Company
In September 1925, fourteen members of the local American Legion post received a rousing send off from the community on its departure to the State Legion Convention at Avalon on Catalina Island. The group’s spirits were high since earlier in the year San Francisco had withdrawn its bid and supported Susanville for next convention. Among the many items the group left with was a special edition of the Lassen Advocate extolling the many virtues of the commumnity. One feature noted the community had 2,305 rooms available. This was a contentious issue as to whether to hold the convention in Susanville in 1926. The Susanville delegation used all its charm and political savvy to beat out Santa Rosa and Stockton by a huge margin. About all those rooms. All might have went well if there was zero occupancy, but with a critical housing shortage that was not the case. The only way to accommodate all the visitors was for residents to open their homes and many did. The Red River Lumber Company provided 325 cots and Fruit Growers 150.
A unique view of Susanville, 1905. Courtesy of Mary Dale Folsom
This was a very short-lived organization that existed during the month of January 1899. The lead instigator, was well known Susanville attorney, E.V. Spencer. At this time, The Nevada-California-Oregon Railroad (NCO) began work to extend its line north from Amedee to the Madeline Plains, again bypassing Susanville. Spencer and L.C. Stiles were appointed representatives of the Club to meet with NCO officials, in this case E. Gest, the manager. The duo reported the meeting was cordial, the NCO had no intent to construct a feeder line. Gest, is the people wanted to construct it, he estimated the cost at $100,000. The initiative floundered. It is interesting to note that Gest testified that summer to California Board of Equalization that the people of Susanville did not deserve a railroad.
There were some local critics that thought the Susanville Improvement Club could do a lot of other work than trying to be a railroad builder. Whatever the case may be, the improvement club morphed into the Susanville Town Hall Association a month later.
The more things change, the more they remain the same, as the old saying goes. The following is a 1927 editorial of the Lassen Advocate, as it was concerned about how mail order business hurt the community. Fast forward today, replace mail order with online shopping.
The Town Grave Digger. In nearly every community may be found quite a number of persons who consider themselves leading citizens, but in truth are helping to dig a grave for their town.
They do it through their failure to support institutions which make the town what it is. They do it by sending away for merchandise which might be brought with equal advantage at home. They do it frequently through thoughtlessness, but often througfh sheer disregard for the welfare of the community of which they are aprt.
The doctrine of buying at home in not advanced solely in the interest of the individual markets. It is advocated because every citizen of a town is to a certain extent dependent upon every other citizen for his own prosperity. Business men are sometimes as greatly at fault as anyone else inthe matters of out-of-town trading.
If the shoe dealer sends away for his automobile tires and the automobile man sends away for his furniture and the furniture man sends away for this clothing and so on, how can they expect to build local prosperity?
All the fine talke about civic pride that one may indulge in will never make a town, so long as the life blood of the community—the cold cash—is spent elsewhere.
A man may make boosting speeches until he is black in the face, but unless he spends his money where he makes it, he is the home town grave-digger.
Main Street, Susanville, 1885. Courtesy of Betty Barry Deal
Today’s feature photograph was taken by John Hanson, who operated a photography studio in Lassen County during the early 1880s. An interesting footnote one could purchase this print for $2.00.
Hanson, a native of Denmark, first came to Lassen County in 1881, where he set up shop at Bieber. Previous to that he was in San Francisco. His brother, whose first name remains unknown came to Bieber and set up a photography studio there, while John moved to Susanville. Like so many photographers in the rural west, they rode the circuit to surrounding communities in search of business. Hanson, like his colleagues, never remained in one place long enough, that we know very little personal information about them. Hanson did find romance in Susanville and married Miss Fannie F. Streshly there on October 31, 1883. Thankfully due to newspaper excerpts we know that Hanson took photographs of the Juniper Mine at Hayden Hill, as well as an assorted views of the many other places in the region. Most of that type of work has never surfaced. In 1885, he departed to Inyo County and never returned back to Lassen.
One of the lingering questions is whatever became Hanson’s negatives? This also applies to others in his profession, such as Herman Brince who did exceptional work here in the late 1870s. Brince died in 1882 in New Zealand, and it would have been rather doubtful that he would have hauled his work there, considering it would have been glass plate negatives.
The billiard room, Story Club, Susanville, 1923. Courtesy of the Fruit Growers Supply Company
This seems to be a quaint blast from the past, at least locally. Billiards, whether it be a game of snooker or pool, was a popular past time since the late 1800s. Its popularity grew by leaps and bounds in the 1920s from the population explosion created by the lumber mills. By the mid-1980s, locally, it began a slow decline. Today, only a handful of establishments throughout the county even have a pool table. The mighty snooker table a relic of the past.
The back room of Susanville’s Bank Club, 1949. Courtesy of Hank Martinez
On Sunday morning, July 3, 1927, fire officials were alerted that a fire was threatening Roop’s Fort, Susanville’s oldest structure on Weatherlow Street. When the fire department arrived they found a nearby shed and chicken coop in flames, that threatened the old fort nearby. Luckily, the fire was extinguished in the nick of time. It was determined that children playing with fireworks started the fire.
There are two interesting anecdotes about this incident. First a newspaper reporter was more focused on tomorrow’s holiday, as evident in the lead sentence: “Fort Weatherlow, the first building in Lassen County, built in 1854 by Peter Roop . . . “
Roop’s Fort was barely located outside the City Limits back then, and the City fire department were prohibited to assist with any fire outside the city limits. In this instance they did. Fast forward to 1946 and a very similar episode. Poulsen’s Welding Shop caught fire, but the city did not respond, because it was just across the city boundary.
Eagle Lake Summit, 1923. Courtesy of Dick & Helen Harrison
The citizens of Susanville in August 1926, while hosting the California American Legion Convention, did everything they could to make it a memorable event. One of the many events they hosted was a barbecue at Eagle Lake. This was no small feat. It was a logistical nightmare to transport some 2,700 people to the south shore of lake. In addition, to bring all the food and related items to go with it had to been a daunting task. To feed a crowd of that size was more than they were prepared for. Long lines were endured for a serving of steak and beans. Most of the attendees took it in stride. “Happy” Wintz from the El Segundo delegation composed a little ditty he sang the next day at the parade in Susanville, a variation of the local legion’s slogan, “Eagle Lake, Eagle Lake, on the rocks and rills, of California hills. Eagle Lake, Eagle Lake, that’s where we got the belly ache.”
The Wingfield property as it appeared in the 1950s.
In the spring of 1942, Susanville residents were astir when the news broke that a famous western movie star purchased the old George Wingfield, south of Susanville, known today as Mountain Meadows Ranch. That star was none other than Buck Jones, who delighted movie goers since the 1920s. It was his desire to raise horses at the ranch. However, his dream was short lived. In November 1942, Buck Jones was killed in the horrific fire of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston that claimed 492 lives.
The Susanville plant, 1921. Courtesy of Ed Standard
In this era of being bombarded with the term “fake news” the City of Susanville deserves a gold medal award to distort the record to accomodate someone’s warped mind. It should be noted, after all, I have spent the majority of my life researching the region’s history to provide an accurate record versus false statements, which is different from folklore. For instance, when my Eagle Lake book was published in 1988, Bob Amesbury congratulated me, since he had written a book on the lake, too. Bob went onto say that he had all the bullshit and I had all the facts.
Fast forward to the summer of 2018, when at the City’s urging I met with with two officials, Mr. McCourt and Ms. Schuster, concerning the history of Riverside Park. It was an exercise in futility, for this dynamic duo, could care less about the history of site, and were bound and determined to change the name of Riverside Park to Fruit Growers Park, regardless of the facts, which ultimately they were successful, using a deceptive survey, that the general public was excluded.
Fruit Growers Supply Company, 1936
Oh, dear reader, it gets worse. To support their claim they lied on the record at a city council meeting at the September 5, 2018, and that information then appears in the local newspaper only to get perpetuated. One of Schuster’s first comments that the city gave Fruit Growers the millsite property consisting of 256 acres, which it should be noted was larger than the city itself, and was located over a mile away from the city limits. Just the twenty acre parcel where the park is located, Fruit Growers purchased that from George and Pearl Bassett for $9,500. In all, Fruit Growers spent more than $60,000 for the millsite property and water rights. It just gets worse. Schuster noted that Fruit Growers sold the mill to Eagle Lake Lumber Company in 1944. Fact, Fruit Growers sold to Eagle Lake Lumber in 1963 for $875,000. Later on it was mentioned that Fruit Growers donated the park property. Excuse me. The city purchased it in 1976 for $23,000 from Sierra Pacific Industries, and it was not the city’s first choice. The city was trying to buy Vallejo Meadows along Piute Creek, north of Willow Street, and west of Parkdale, as part of a greenbelt program, but that deal fell through.
In closing then, with the City’s current thinking, Riverside Hospital where I was born and lots of others could not have existed under that name, as it must have been Fruit Growers Hospital.
A little background for those not familiar with the topic, that I wrote about in the spring of 2015. Granville Pullen first came to Lassen County in 1870. He moved around, and in 1901 he bought a ranch near Janesville. In 1914, at the age 76, he retired from the ranch and bought a home in Janesville. It should be noted that Pullen had been collecting various artifacts and curious for forty years. Upon his retirement he opened a small museum to display his collection. People were fascinated and donated items to him.
In 1920, Granville and his wife, Mary, bought a home on South Roop Street in Susanville. Next to his new home, he had a small concrete building constructed to house his museum and it opened to the public on June 18, 1921.
When Pullen passed away in 1926, his wife did not share her late husband’s possession for his artifacts. In early 1927, Mary donated the bulk of the collection to Lassen County and many items were put on display in the new Veteran’s Memorial Building. At the December 5, 1927 meeting of the Lassen County Board of Supervisors a discussion was held regarding the Pullen Museum. Mary Pullen offered the museum building on Roop Street to county on the condition it would be moved to another location. County Purchasing Agent E.F. Koken informed the board that it would be too difficult to move the building and the county declined the offer.
