In 1913, Malvena Gallatin built the first summer home at Eagle Lake. For the next ten years her family, especially her granddaughter Norma Virginia, spent the summers there. The bulk of these photos were taken between 1917 and 1920, when Eagle Lake reached its historic high levels. I recently scanned few and I can post various scenes if there is an interest. It should be noted that there are some 200 photographs.
Tim
During the 1910s there were only a handful postcards produced featuring Eagle Lake. First and foremost, there was no market. After all the majority of the south shore was privately owned, and there was one small seasonal resort. In all my years of research and I have come across two of the above pictured Sunset at Eagle Lake, circa 1916.
It was not until the early 1960s with development of forest service campgrounds and marina, that there were be quite of few Eagle Lake postcards produced. Those images are noteworthy reflecting on the change of the lake level elevation.
Tim
Some ranches retain their original name, after the owner is long gone. A perfect is the Bare Ranch in Surprise Valley. In 1864, Thomas Bare established the ranch, sold it in 1880, and it is still known over a century later as the Bare Ranch.
The Lonkey Ranch is not one of those ranches. It was originally known as the San Francisco Ranch, the owners were from that city. Lonkey was in the middle, followed by Five Dot. For those not familiar, this ranch is located approximately twelve miles north of Susanville in the Willow Creek Valley. Continue reading Willow Creek Valley – Lonkey Ranch
One of the peculiar oddities back in Westwood’s early history there were no accommodations for the traveling public. The Red River Lumber Company who controlled the town wanted it that way. This would hinder any “undesirables” to try infiltrate the town, i.e., such as union organizers. However, Red River needed to provide some sort of accommodations for people visiting on official business with the company. Red River constructed the El Solano at 501 Birch Street to meet those needs.
In the 1930s, during Red River’s financial crisis, the company converted its American Legion Hall into a hotel known as the Blue Ox Inn, and thus the El Solano diminished in status. It would later be converted into apartments. In the fall of 1965 the Assembly of God Church renovated the building, and the second story removed. Today, it is a private residence.
Gerlach which straddles the Black Rock and Smoke Creek Deserts is a unique community. Its latest notoriety is that it is the closet community of the annual Burning Man event. I thought some might be interested in this September 2, 1910 article about Gerlach that appeared in the Lassen Advocate.
“Gerlach is Becoming a Metropolis. The town of Gerlach on the end of the Western Pacific is already the metropolis of northern Washoe County and is growing so rapidly that it will have a voting precinct of its own this fall.
“It will be the old Salt Marsh precinct, but a change will be made of the polling place to that point. The Buffalo Meadows farmers are kicking about the additional twenty mile drive to the polls, but as they previously had to go thirty-five miles, it is thought that the extra distance will not hurt them.
“There is a strong attraction possessed by Gerlach, which now boasts four saloons and more coming.
“Long Valley, some forty miles to the north, is also settlig up rapidly. There is a reclamation scheme in progress there and it is forecasted that the valley will be thickly settled and prosperous before many years pass.
“Gerlach is now the freight division point for the Western Pacific and is the shipping place for the southern end of Surprise Valley, California, to which place a county road was recently constructed.”
Tim
In 1911 the Fall River Valley High School was formed in eastern Shasta County. However, that school’s boundary extended into Lassen County, most notably the Pittville section. Prior to the Fall River school that area was in the jurisdiction of the Lassen County High School. Lassen County erroneously taxed those that served by the newly formed school. In 1912, Lassen County Auditor George Bailey addressed the Lassen County Board of Supervisors of the issue. He asked the board for permission to send out tax rebate checks to those affected-some 86 individuals. The total amount came to $483.01. The smallest amount was fourteen cents to Charlie Young and the largest was $112.00 to Thomas B. Walker.
Tim
When the town was incorporated in 1900, the major impetus was for fire protection. One concern was that citizens would either pile up rubbish at the nearest vacant lot or in the alternative to avoid the city’s wrath and possible fine, one could easily find a convenient location outside the confines of the city limits.This in itself poised a fire risk, but also health hazard.
It was not until 1920 that a city dump was created. On March 20, 1921, the City awarded a franchise to Frank Gerig, who offered twice weekly garbage collection at a monthly fee of fifty cents per address.
Tim
During the winter of 1930-31 a group of Mineral residents organized the Mt. Lassen Ski Club. The first officers were : L. Walker Collins, President; Art Holmes Secretary and H.K. “Husky” Beresford, Treasurer. Not only was club influential in bringing winter sports to the region, but they also brought skiing to Lassen Park. On October 23, 1931, Beresford had obtained a special use permit from the forest service to construct a fifty meter ski jump near Mineral.
The club was off to a good start. On January 17, 1932, it sponsored its first ski tournament at Mineral .To attract crowds, it was necessary to showcase the talents of professional ski jumpers. The club was able to secure the attendance of the “Viking Caravan,” a renowned group of professional Norwegian skiers–Alf Engel, Lars Haugan, Halvor Halstad, Sig Ulland Steffan Trogstad, Sverre Engine and Einar Fredbo–plus an American Ted Rex, Rex was a Michigan native, won the the 1930 U.S. Professional Ski Jumping Championship.
While the professional ski jumpers served their purpose in drawing crowds to the event, this was not their only intention. It provided a golden opportunity to encourage spectators to to participate in skiing, many for the first time. At the Mineral event, the morning was devoted to the public and billed as a “snow folic” where one could ski, take skiing lessons, sled toboggan and to partake in the popular ashcan slide.
In the 1910s, the State of California had the daunting task of plotting out a highway system, and there were plenty of details to be dealt with. Among them, especially for the traveling public, was the designation of highway routes. In the early 1920s, the California Automobile Association led a campaign to give descriptive names of the mountain routes. Highway boosters of the region proclaimed the route between Red Bluff and Susanville, the Lassen Volcanic Highway, since the highway went by the southern entrance of the national park. In time, the State of California began to use a numbering system, and initially proclaimed this route as Number 29. In 1935, it was changed to State Highway Route 36. The change of the number was necessary to reflect the adoption of a uniform system, where even road numbers went to east-west direction and odd ones were for north-south routes.
On a quarterly basis, I ask you the reader, if there is something you would like to learn more about or maybe its something you heard, but question its validity. So here is an opportunity to participate. I will do my best to answer any questions. It should be noted, it may take awhile for the answer to appear as a post. The primary reason, many of the daily posts are done nearly a month in advance. So by the time you read this I am already working on posts for the middle of February, or at least I should be. Whatever the case may be, I look forward to hearing from you. Of course, it should be noted that paid subscribers requests receive priority. In addition, you can always send a request at any time.
Tim