Dodge Reservoir located in the northeastern part of Lassen County and has an interesting tale in its development. It would take twenty years from its inception to its completion. It began in 1889, when Albert L. Shinn* formed the Union Land & Stock Company. Shinn proposed that the water from Red Rock Creek could provide irrigation for the entire eastern Madeline Plains. The reservoir was originally named Lake Lockett, for the Company’s Civil Engineer, H.M. Lockett. In the early 1890s, the Union Land & Stock Company started the irrigation project but eventually construction ceased because of lack of funds and other problems. On December 9, 1907, Henry C. Dodge acquired an option to buy the Union Land & Stock Company’s failed Red Rock irrigation system. In 1909, Dodge formed the Madeline Valley Land & Irrigation Company to undertake this enterprise. In the fall of 1909, the Company contracted with August and Alfred Anderson to build the system. In December 1909, Dodge Reservoir was completed. In 1912, Henry C. Dodge died during an altercation in Reno, Nevada. Dodge’s two sons, Carl and Dana, continued with the family enterprise on the eastern Madeline Plains. On January 14, 1949, Bernys M. Dodge, the agent for the Dodge Brothers, sold the Dodge Ranch and Reservoir to George and Jean Smith.
When the fishing is good there, its really good and worth the trek.
*Shinn was part of the Shinn Ranch family, became a well known attorney in the region and later Sacramento.
