The State Board Equalization is a wealthy repository for information. When it came to taxing railroads, the Board compiled information about each railroad, and was broken down by trackage and the shared assessed value. The taxes collected would be distributed to counties to fund roads and schools. Here is some information of the 1918 reports for the NCO and Western Pacific.
The NCO had 89.13 miles of main railway track in Lassen County and 157.35 in the State of California. The assessed value in the county was valued at $247,664.
The Western Pacific had 44.44 miles on railroad in Lassen County and 417.5 miles in the State of California. The assessed value in the county was valued at $888,800.
This is for the railfans out there. While going through the filing /catalog bin, I came across additional photograph of the NCO’s No. 2 locomotive. As a matter of fact I also came across a Western Pacific Railroad construction photograph taken near Constantia, that I might include in a possible 2027 Calendar, but that is just too far out me to contemplate.
The No. 2 at Amedee, 1909—Marie Gould
In 1884, the Nevada & Oregon purchased its No 2 Baldwin locomotive new for $4,750. According to David Myrick’s NCO railroad locomotive roster the No. 2 was retired on December 31, 1918—presumably scrapped.
On September 2, 1931, a fifteen-year-old boy while hopping on a Western Pacific freight train at Flanigan fell under the wheels and was horribly mangled at the scene. Reports from the Coroner’s Inquest and newspapers accounts were sketchy.
Accordingly, 15 year old Paul McArthur left on a Southern Pacific freight at Reno. The Southern Pacific train stopped at Flanigan to allow the Western Pacific to travel through. At the point McArthur got off the Southern Pacific train and tried to hop on the moving Western Pacific train slipped and fell. After the Western Pacific passed through, Southern Pacific employees noticed the boy lying on the ground. They gave him first aid and took him to Wendel where the Allen & Edenholm ambulance was summoned. McArthur was apparently in a state shock and he told Edenholm, the ambulance driver, where he was from, and that he did not appear to suffer. He died shortly after his arrival at Riverside Hospital in Susanville.
When the Coronoer’s jury was summoned the next day, it deemed not necessary for the trainmen to testify, since no one actually saw what happened. When Edenhom concluded his testimony he stated, “McArthur was just his beating his way, and he didn’t have a cent to his name and he hadn’t eaten for several days. It is a pitiful case and very unfortunate.” The Coroner’s verdict” Shock from injury in railroad accident. He was a trespasser on freight train (Western Pacific R.R.) and accidentally fell under train. Train crushed both thighs.”
Mohalla Siding, south of Lake Almanor, July 18, 1931. Courtesy of the Plumas County Museum
On February 14, 1929, the Western Pacific and Great Northern Railroads petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to link the two railroads from Keddie to Klamath Falls, it was a bold move. For Western Pacific it would consist of a 112-mile line from Keddie to Bieber. The route has many names, Inside Gateway, Northern California Extension and the widely used Highline.
Great Northern’s Depot, Bieber.
It was not a slam dunk proposition. Numerous public hearings were held, as well petitions and legal briefs during the fourteenth month period. To broaden support the railroads offered passenger train service. The residents along route were excited about this prospect. On June 30, 1930 the ICC granted the railroads permission to build its proposal. On November 10, 1931 a golden spike ceremony was held at Bieber to celebrate the completion.
One of the promises broken was regular passenger service was never instituted. There were would be special excursion trains and those were few and far between. However, Western Pacific did offer limited passenger service between Keddie and Bieber., in which passengers were placed in freight train cabooses. Between 1953 and 1958 the Western Pacific said this service provided $380.89 in revenue. In 1959, Western Pacific petitioned the State Public Utilities Commission to discontinue the limited passenger service and that was granted.
Scotts, a Western Pacific station in Long Valley. Courtesy of the Nevada Historical Society
Yesterday, I wrote about Eslie Cann while working at the Nevada Historical Society would send information and copies of photographs from time to time. The above photograph was one of them. The story does not end there. In 2002, during the preparation of my book Lassen County Almanac: An Historical Encyclopedia I contacted the Nevada Historical Society requesting permission to publish this photograph. Their reply was unexpected. They informed me that they did not have that photograph in their collection anymore. They stated that they discarded some border counties photographs.
As to, Scott’s it was a little known Western Pacific Station in Long Valley. It was located about three miles south of Constantia. It was so named for Charles and Franceska Scott who located there in 1901, from Fish Springs, Nevada. With the railroad station, they decided to open a general store and even established the Scotts Post Office. The post office only operated from 1912 to 1916. In 1918, they sold their 3,160-acre ranch to Antonio Saralegui.
Western Pacific’s depot at Doyle, 1921-Courtesy of Lola Tanner
Personally, I have almost no information about this depot. Kerry Cochran, Archive Manager for the Western Pacific Railroad Museum provided the following:
“The Depot was located at Mile Post 362.55at an elevation of 4,301 feet. The Western Pacific had the 22 X 70 foot depot built in 1910. The station was retired as a train order station in 1952. In 1956 the WP filed a notice to reduce the station to non-agency status and the depot was officially retired in 1957”
If any one has additional information and/or recollections, that would be great.
Doyle, with the Western Pacific Depot, 1915—Sue Whitten
For nearly decade Doyle was serviced by two railroads-the NCO and the Western Pacific. Passengers switching trains from one to the other was problematic. In August 1914, the Reno Journal reported that a meeting of the respective railroad officials was held at Doyle. The outcome of the said meeting it was told that a new depot would be jointly built by the two companies. That was not the last word. In September, the State Railroad Commission held a meeting in Doyle, which residents were opposed the depot merger. The Commission ruled in favor of the residents and the depot issue dropped.
In a couple of years the issue would be moot. In 1917, the NCO sold its trackage from Hackstaff (Herlong) to Reno, thus the NCO would no longer serve Doyle.
On January 26, 1942, U.S. Representative Harry L. Englebright announced that the War Department had approved the establishment of the Sierra Ordnance Depot. It would be located at Hackstaff, forty miles southeast of Susanville. Hackstaff was a very small station on the Western Pacific Railroad. The ordnance depot, on the other hand, would cover an estimated 25,000 acres sagebrush lands on the eastern side of the Honey Lake Valley. Englebright informed Susanville residents that $20 million had been approved to construct the depot. It would involve the construction of some 1,000 “igloos” for ammunition storage, besides the facilities associated with the depot. Construction would begin immediately.
It was projected that as many as 5,000 people could be involved with the initial construction and operations. A new infrastructure would have to be constructed to accommodate this huge influx of population. Susanvile and the Honey Lake Valley would be heavily impacted by this development, with such issues as housing, schools and roads. The initial reaction was mixed, though Susanville’s business community was more supportive of the project than the agricultural community.
At the February 9, 1942 Susanville City Council meeting, Jack Hill of the Shell Oil Company, informed them of expected problems with the construction of the depot. He said that Susanville would be the initial employment headquarters. The city would shortly be flooded with people seeing employment. Since time was f the essence, Hill suggested that icy become involved in established tent and trailor courts to handle the increase population. After all, with building supplies in demand, this would provide an alternative housing method. Hill warned both the city and county to be prepared for the criminal element, i.e., camp followers found at such construction projects. He said, “You are going to have a very high percentage of non-desirable people arriving with those whose livelihood is made in every conceivable means outside the law. You can combat them if the community is prepared to stop them before they get started. The fastest and easiest way to stop them is to make their activities unprofitable.”
To prepare for the criminal element, a group of local law enforcement officials-the County Sheriff, District Attorney and Chief of Police, paid a visit to Hermiston, Oregon, where a munitions depot had recently been established. Hill was 100 percent correct in his warning. In June 1942, the crime wave swept Susanville and the environs of the Honey Lake Valley. During June 1941, there had had been 31 arrests inside the city. A year later, it has escalated to 103 for the same period. The majority of these offenses were for drunk and disorderly conduct. On one day, June 27, 1942, a record sixteen people were booked into the city jail-a facility that had only 400 square feet of room to house inmates! Over at the county jail just blocks away the situation was just as grim. One alternative solution to alleviate overcrowding the two jails was from the implementation of a special fee. If one had the extra cash, he could pay a fine three times of the existing fine and would not be incarcerated, though it only pertained to misdemeanor offenses.
Caudle & Warden drilling a well for the Western Pacific at Calneva.-C.R. Cudle Collection
Calneva was located in the eastern Honey Lake Valley with a close proximity of the California and Nevada border, approximately six miles east of Herlong. In 1910, the Western Pacific Railroad established the Calneva Station. During the 1910s, this area experienced a great deal of homestead activity. Individuals were lured there by a promise of water from the South Lassen Irrigation District, that planned to divert water from the Little Truckee River via Long Valley Creek to irrigate the desert lands of eastern Honey Lake Valley. Those and other proposals never materialized.
Calneva Station-Courtesy of Russell Umbraco
In 1921, the Western Pacific Railroad received permission from the California Railroad Commission to abandon the station. They cited in 1920, only 61 passenger tickets were sold and freight revenue was $435.01–the station’s total profit for that year $117.27.
The Western Pacific Depot, Doyle, 1915. Courtesy of Suzanne Pratt
It was slow as molasses, for the evolution of Doyle proper. In 1859, John W. Doyle settled approximately two miles of the town that would eventually named him. He did not lived to see it, as he died in 1892.
In what would be considered Doyle proper, it was the stage stop known as Willow Ranch dating back to the 1870s. On June 6, 1888 the troubled the NCO Railway reached Willow Ranch and established a station called Long Valley. Nothing unusual, since John Doyle operated the Long Valley Post Office.
John W. Doyle (1832-1892). Courtesy of the Nevada Historical Society
Another railroad, namely the Western Pacific, was the catalyst of the development of the town. When that railroad passed through they named their station Doyle. On January 28, 1909, the Doyle Post Office was established. It was not until 1911, that the townsite was surveyed.
