Once upon a time, Lassen College had a very popular forestry program. This was back in the day, with three large lumber mills in Susanville, another one in Westwood, along with the Lassen National Forest provided a lot of job opportunities. It was because of these factors that there was need for some vocational training in this field, and especially for the community. Continue reading Lassen College’s Forestry Program
If you recall for Halloween last year, I posted a story about Freak Parties. Before television, folks did a pretty good of entertaining themselves with all kinds of parties. These, of course, were quite the social event. Unfortunately, I do not know what the occasion for above photograph. It was taken at the residence of 700 Mill Street, Susanville. The following is a listing of those identified:
First Row: Unknown, Harriet Bangham, Gladys Emerson, Hazel Doyle, Unknown, Unknown and Unknown.
Second Row: Unknown, Anna Sharp, Eleanor Byrant, Lillian True Bangham, Sadie Jacobs, Unknown, Mrs. Church.
Third Row: Grace Bridges, Lucille Pierce Nash Mathews, Dudie Ramsey, Flora Neuhaus, Marie Emerson Hallowell, Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Fannie Winchester.
Fourth Row: Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Blanche Spalding Pardee, Unknown, Unknown, Kate Odette Pierce, Kitty Whipple, Jeanette Alexander Worley, Mrs. Trix Wren.
Humbug Valley is located a bit south and west of Lake Almanor. It is an interesting locale, and worth the trip if you have never been there.
In 1855, B.K. Ervine and William B. Long used the valley for stock-range. Two years later, gold was discovered and set off a flurry of mining operations. Long and his father-in-law, Allen Wood, built a hotel there, and a sawmill mill, too, and thus the town of Longville came into existence. In 1862, Long came to Susanville and purchased William Weatherlow’s ranch, known today as Susanville Ranch Park.
Longville continued to flourish, and then came along World War I and everything changed. Like so many places Longville would slowly become de-populated and residents never returned after the War. The Longville Post Office that had been in operation since 1861, closed in 1918.
Walker’s was an iconic Susanville institution for nearly forty years. It first started as a small hamburger and shake stand on the corner of Main and Alexander Avenue. It later expanded into a full-fledged restaurant that was popular with the locals and travelers, too. In the 1970s, the City of Susanville made a realignment to Alexander Avenue, and the gas station was moved next door.
For the past several years the building has undergone extensive renovations. There is a lot of speculation what the former Walker’s is going to be reincarnated into. In due time, we will find out one day.
Born Anna Marie Goumaz on July 22, 1839 and was a small minority of German Swiss immigrants to Lassen County. By the 1890s, a second wave arrived, but from the Canton Ticino, better known as Swiss Italians, but that is another story. In 1851, her parents along with nine children migrated to the United States finally locating in Illinois. In 1863, Anna and her two brothers, Philip and Isadore decided to go west and found a new home in the Honey Lake Valley. On March 10, 1864, Anna married rancher Lyman C. Stiles. Continue reading Anna M. Stiles
On April 9, 1939, Father Patrick J. Moran during his Easter Sunday service announced his intention that Sacred Heart Parish needed a new church. It was rather dramatic, since Moran had only been appointed to take care of the spiritual needs of Sacred Heart four months prior.
The old wooden church was built in 1892, and it was originally located on Richmond Road, adjacent to the bridge over Susan River. In 1909, the church was moved to the corner of Union and Nevada Streets. However, the years had taken a toll on the wooden frame structure, and many parishioners complained that it was cold and drafty in the winter months, since the only heating was an ornate wood stove.
Moran, in his address, concluded that a new church would be built on the site of the current one. The following year, Moran received Bishop Robert Armstrong’s blessing. Shortly afterwards Sacramento architect Clarence C. Huff was awarded the contract to design the new church.
However, Moran’s quest would take nearly ten years for it to come to fruition. More about that in a future post.
One of Susanville’s original streets, when the town was surveyed in 1863 it was the most western street. So named for the pine trees that are on the western edge of town. An odd thing about Pine Street, it initially went from Main south to the Susanville Cemetery. What is known as North Pine Street did not come into existence for a number years, and even then it only extended to North Street. For years it was known as Prattville Road, and this was route out of town, and the next town then in existence was Prattville, which the original town no longer exists as it demolished to make way for Lake Almanor in 1914.
While T.B. Walker and his Red River Lumber Company had a profound impact on Lassen County, Leon Bly and his Eagle Lake irrigation plan ranks right up there with Walker.
The Lassen Industrial Bank was established in the spring of 1912. It met with such success that in 1914 they opened a branch at Bieber and in 1917 another branch at Fall River Mills.
With tremendous growth caused by the lumber industry, the bank built a $100,000 two-story building at the corner of Main and Gay Streets. But the good times did not last long. The bank had nearly over extended itself with loans to the farmers of Bly’s irrigation project, that had failed shortly after the tunnel was completed in 1923. This caused, the bank to start foreclosures on those farmers, and many of those properties were worthless without water. By the summer of 1928, the rumor on the streets of Susanville was in full blast, that either the bank was going to be sold, and worse yet go into bankruptcy. In early August 1928, A.P. Giannini of the Bank of America came to the aid with a $100,000 cash bail out, in which on December 1, 1928, officially took over the Lassen Industrial Bank.
In the mid-1920s an impromptu airstrip was developed at the north end of Spring Street. At first Red River Lumber Company, owner of the property had no objections. That changed with their intentions of the proposed Piute railroad logging line. Continue reading Susanville Airport
During the Civil War of the 1860s, communities in support of the North, applied Union to street names, squares, etc. Susanville was a perfect textbook example.
Typical of the era, map makers were one dimensional. Susanville’s original plat, shows Union Street extending beyond Cottage and connecting Weatherlow Street at the Richmond Road bridge. There were two problems. First the proposed street would dissect the block that was home to the Susanville School District. The other was the physical restraint of the hillside for Union to connect with Weatherlow. During the messy title problems of the 1870s, caused by the town’s founder, to rectify this particular situation, that segment of Union to Weatherlow was abandoned.