While sifting through my Lassen County Schools file, I came across something that caught my attention. It was a telegraph envelope addressed to J.B. Spalding, a Lassen County High School Trustee. Someone wrote on the envelope “Please Preserve.” The above illustration was the content of the telegram from Lassen County Superintendent of Schools, J.F. Dixon.
It should be noted that Professor Frank C. Schofield was hired as the first Principal/Instructor for the Lassen County High School in the fall of 1903. A second instructor, George Barton assisted. In an 1906 account spoke highly of Schofield: “Under his efficient management rapid progress has been made in all departments, and the attendance has largely increased, the number of pupils registered the first year having been but forty, which in the second year sixty names appeared on the roll.” Among other items, Schofield oversaw the construction of the high school.
W.H. Weeks rendering of the new high school.
In June 1910, Professor Schofield surprised the community that he was leaving for Palo Alto, California to take year sabbatical from teaching. Was the above undated telegram the impetus? We may never know. Schofield never returned to Lassen and spent the rest of his educational career in Palo Alto where he died in 1935.
Seasoned residents and visitors to Lake Almanor will recall that body of water was plagued with snags—dead standing trees submerged by the lake. The trees were mostly lodgepole pine that had no commercial value to the Red River Lumber Company when it initially logged the basin. Another issue, especially along the shoreline was the remnants of tree stumps left over from harvesting trees.
In 1954 the California Department of Fish & Game estimated it would cost $1.6 million to remove the snags and stumps. California Assemblywoman Pauline Davis, who liked the idea of the snag removal, would not seek state funds to do it, as the lake was privately owned.
As the development of the subdivisions on the peninsula and east shore continued so did the issue of snag removal. In the fall of 1959, PG&E did a pilot test to remove the snags and stumps. After it was completed, it would assess the results, and should it appear feasible from a cost standpoint, it would move forward with the program to include additional segments of the lake.
To the delight of many, PG&E continued with the snag removal program, and in 1961 work was accelerated. Cattermole and Tretheway Construction Company were awarded the contract for removal snags, stumps and driftwood. At its peak the company had five barges, employing over fifty men. One of the more problematic regions of the lake was the one known as Gould Swamp to the east of Chester. A huge pile of snags was created on the Chester boat landing road. Farrell Hamilton, foreman for the company, reported that the pile consisted of nearly six million board feet of timber. It measured some 1,100 feet long, by 60 feet wide and 20 feet high. To dispose of this mammoth wodpile, the company intended to have one large bonfire and it did in late October 1963. As one forest service employee noted, it “really made quite a blaze.”
Stacy was a small community in the eastern Honey Lake Valley located between Amedee and the Nevada Stateline. It came into existence when the Fernley & Lassen Railroad was constructed through there in 1912. There were high hopes in the region with the completion of the Standish Water Company’s pumping plant on Honey Lake. It was the company’s intent to irrigate some 4,000 acres for sugar beet production. Its a complicated story.
Stacy Depot. The town was named for Stacy Yoakum Spoon, wife of Grover Franklin Spoon, one of the town’s developers and its first postmaster.
This is another depot, where I have not been able to locate much information. There was a nearby stock corral for loading sheep. In 1940, there was siding that could handle 113 cars.
Paul Bunyan Lumber Company, 1953. Courtesy of Fred Lendman
On May 15, 1967, Kenneth R. Walker, president of the Paul Bunyan Lumber Company announced the pending closure of its Susanville mill. Walker cited the lack of available of timber for the closure. The mill closed in August and the liquidation process began.
In 1945, when Red River Lumber Company was in its initial dissolution process, Kenneth wanted to remain in the business. At that time, Red River owned what was referred to as the “Cedar Mill” in Susanville. Kenneth took over that mill and named his new venture the Paul Bunyan Lumber Company.
In conclusion, Walker provided two interesting facts about the mill. He stated that when the last board is shipped, the mill would have processed 650 million board feet of lumber during its operations. In addition, the company’s total payroll during that time amounted to $20 million.
The 1865 school petition, saved from my dumpster diving expertise.
In 1864, during the creation of Lassen County there were six original school districts, Milford would become seventh the following year. On February 28, 1865, Milford residents petitioned the Lassen County Board of Supervisors for a school district of their own. After all, the Lake School, was some twelve miles to the north and the Long Valley School nearly twenty miles to the south. The board obliged.
The second Milford School—-Milford Community Association
One of the unique traits of Milford, is that its original and replacement school houses still stand—though since converted in private residences, and they are side by side. The first schoolhouse was built in the summer of 1865 by Ezra P. Soule and Henry C. Stockton for $500. As Milford continued to grow, so did its student population. In 1883, the voters there dealt with a contentious issue to pass a special tax for $160 to construct an addition—it narrowly passed. The school population just kept growing and the original school, even with an addition was not enough. Back to the polls. On May 12, 1888, the school district voters approved $1,400 bond measure for a new school house, that served the community for nearly eight decades.
Milford School, 1957. Courtesy of Milford Community Association
While the Milford School experienced many ups and downs, like any institution, times were changing. Long gone were the horse and buggy days, replaced with paved highways and automobiles that resulted in the population decline of rural communities and Milford was of no exception. In 1965, the upper grade students at Milford were transferred to Herlong Elementary. The following year, the school struggled and only taught grades one through three. The following year it closed and was annexed to Janesville Elementary School District.
In 1891, William E. Smythe was involved with the National Irrigation Congress, which opened doors to him. Smythe’s interest was irrigation/reclamation issues of the American West. He then formed the Associated Colonies as a venue to promote his vision. This colony movement was based a lot on the Puritanical beliefs of New England. In 1895, they founded a colony at New Plymouth, Idaho.
Smythe was intrigued with the Honey Lake Valley and its many failed irrigation projects. In 1897, he planned for a colony there to be known as Standish. He was even able to secure Edward Purser’s Susan River Irrigation System, which included the reservoirs of McCoy, Hog and Leavitt. It would be an interesting experiment that we will explore in future installments.
Canyon Dam at Lake Almanor was mostly obliterated during the Dixie Fire of 2021. Like many small enclaves it evolved over the years. Canyon Dam first came into existence in 1910, as headquarters of Great Western Power Company in preparation of constructing a dam to flood Big Meadows and create Lake Almanor. Great Western also referred to it as Nevis, but by the summer of 1914, Plumas County Board of Supervisors adopted the name of Canyon Dam for the locale. The Canyon Dam Post Office was established on May 28, 1940 with Emmett W. Bishop as first postmaster. It was discontinued on September 14, 1944 and re-established on June 16, 1952.
The final part of the Bear Dance ritual at Bass Hill, circa 1900.
The spring ritual of the Mountain Maidu Bear Dance, locally, has been held at a variety of locations. In the earliest times, it would be held near a stream, for water was an important element in the conclusion of the dance.
One of the earliest sites was near Baxter Creek at Bass Hill referred to as the village of Yoskopin, also known as Lone Pine. This would be the late 1890s, early 1900s. There is a citation that the dance was held along Paiute Creek, just north of Susanville, from 1910 into the 1920s. That location was near the present day intersection of Chestnut and Parkdale. What is odd with its close proximity to Susanville, a town. with two newspapers, that they never chronicled it.
Sacramento Bee, June 9, 1975
In the late 1920s, Kitty Joaquin sponsored the event at her place near Janesville. She continued the same until 1953. There are accounts that in the 1940s and early 1950s that it was occasionally held at the Susanville Rancheria. By the late 1950s, it appeared the ceremony was on the brink of being abandoned. However, in 1962 Gladys Mankins sponsored the ceremony at her place on Janesville Grade. In 1975, that event made headline news with the appearance of California Governor Jerry Brown. Mankins continued with the tradition up to 1986. In 1989, it was revived and has been held ever since on forest service property at Willard Creek.
Ephraim Van Buren Spencer (1836 -1904) was a staunch advocate to have Susanville serviced by a railroad. Without one, the town in his opinion would be just another “Sleepy Hollow.”
The first glimmer of hope came in 1880 with the establishment of the Nevada & Oregon Railroad at Reno. The fledging railroad struggled in its early years. A dramatic change occurred in 1884 when the railroad was acquired by the Moran Brothers—New York bankers. The following year the railroad went through a name change first as the Nevada & California and eventually the Nevada-California-Oregon.
With Morans at the helm, Spencer saw hope and the residents of Susanville raised $500 to send Spencer to New York to meet with the Morans. The meeting went well, but the Morans stated they had no funds to extend the line. Spencer felt confident that the Morans would eventually build north to Susanville,
In March 1887, Spencer and the community of Susanville were blindsided when the railroad announced it would build a 47 mile extension from Junction (Hallelujah) House to Brubeck’s on the east shore of Honey Lake. Spencer hastily arranged a meeting with Daniel Moran and Edgar Heriot, the latter the railroad’s general manager. Spencer urged them to reconsider, and a route through Susanville would be more profitable. One of the railroad’s concerns was a route out of Susanville to the north. In June concerned Susanville residents met to come up with a plan to convince the railroad to change its mind. Not only did they offer to survey the route, but obtain the necessary rights-of-way, a donation of a depot site in Susanville and more. It was all in vain, due to an unusual circumstance. The NCO fired Heriot, and was replaced a temperamental Erasmus Gest. Gest could care less about the Susanville proposal. He was determined to build the railroad line with the most direct route to Oregon, thus the railroad built on the east side of Honey Lake.
Not be undaunted, Spencer would make one last final attempt with the railroad. In 1899, when the NCO extended its line northward, as construction was stalled during the 1890s, Spencer proposed a feeder line from Hot Springs Station (Wendel) to Susanville. When he contacted the Morans the answer was no. However, Susanville residents could construct the feeder line at an estimated cost of $100,000. That was not going to happen, since community could not even raise $450 to build a public hall.
Nearly eight years after Spencer’s death in 1913, the Fernley & Lassen Railroad arrived in Susanville. The town went through a major transformation and it was no longer a Sleepy Hollow.
Some people know I have a special affinity for New Zealand. Of course there are a variety of Lassen connections with the land of the kiwis. One of the best photographers of the Lassen region of the 1870s, Herman Brince died in Auckland in 1881. Then there is case of Dr. J.G. Leonard, hardly a household name here or there. It should be noted that in 1884 Leonard had constructed one of Susanville’s most iconic buildings, known today as the Elk’s Lodge. Leonard’s descendants reside in New Zealand. The Asher family were among the prominent Jewish families of Susanville, though they later left that town to help establish Hollywood and Asher descendants, too, reside in New Zealand. In addition, even a Shinn descendant is a New Zealand resident.
So what does this bizarre topic with Cows with Guns have to do with New Zealand. Not only do I read the New Zealand Herald, but I listen to a New Zealand radio station. Recently, that station played a medley by Dana Lyons entitled Cows with Guns. It is on youtube and click here to listen. The lyrics with the puns are great, and I am sure Lassen County’s ranching community will enjoy. With that in mind, enjoy your Labor Day..
While sifting through my Lassen County Schools file, I came across something that caught my attention. It was a telegraph envelope addressed to J.B. Spalding, a Lassen County High School Trustee. Someone wrote on the envelope “Please Preserve.” The above illustration was the content of the telegram from Lassen County Superintendent of Schools, J.F. Dixon.
