Ever since the 1850s when Anglo settlement began in the Lassen region there would be reports from time to time of unusual noises being emitted, yet everyone pondered what it was and where it was coming from. Over time, many deduced it had come from the Lassen Peak region. An interesting account of such was reported on December 8, 1883 by the Susanville correspondent to the Reno Evening Gazette newspaper. The following is the published account of the same:
“For nearly a week a number of woodcutters some three miles west of town, have heard loud, heavy rumblings like distant thunder, or more properly like the firing of very heavy ordinance at a long distance away. The sound comes from a westerly direction, and as there is no mining or even an inhabitant for nearly a hundred miles in the direction from which the sounds proceeds, there seems to be no small amount of mystery connected with them. The sounds are heard at all times of the day and night and when not a cloud can be seen. Your correspondent has heard them in company of several others, every day for the past week and the only aparently possible solution of the mystery is, that the vast forces that formed Lassen Peak’s cinder cone and the other volcanoes to the west of here, and which have lain dormant for centuries, are once more coming to life and activity again.”