This calendar is unique in a different kind of way. Four of the photographs featured I purchased on Ebay. One of the most unique is that of Homer Lake taken in 1919. Where the photographer took the photograph was impressive. As usual it is an interesting collection of historical photographs of the region.
One has three options to purchase calendars:
1) Locally, you can purchase them at Margie’s Book Nook.
2) You can purchase direct online by clicking here
3) You can also email me to place your order, and it will be sent with an invoice.
Tim
P.S. – Initial supply is limited to fifty calendars.
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 November, 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.
50 North Gay Street as it appeared in 1919. Courtesy of Leona F. Byars
This home built in the mid-1880s at the southwest corner of Nevada and Gay Streets, had numerous owners, my great great grandmother Franceska Murrer Neuhuas, was one of them. In 1978 the property was purchased by Bank of America where they would build a new Susanville Branch office. The house, fortunately was not demolished but moved a few blocks away to 330 North Roop Street.
W.H. Weeks architectural rendering for the Lassen County High School. .
In 1892, California passed a progressive piece of education legislation enabling counties to establish public high schools. Many California counties, while embraced the concept, were slow to implement due to the financial crisis of 1893, which certain regions took decades to recover.
In the spring of 1902, Lassen County Superintendent of Schools, O.M. Doyle embarked on an ambitious campaign to form a Lassen County High School. He succeeded. On November 4, 1902 the voters approved the measure—637 Yes and 295 Opposed. The opposition came mainly from Big Valley, Madeline Plains and Long Valley, since there was no doubt the high school would be located in Susanville, and they resided such a great distance from there, it would not be beneficial in their opinion.
On September 14, 1903, the first session of the Lassen County High School was held. In attendance were approximately forty students, with two instructors, George Barton and F.C. Schofield, the latter also served as principal. In the summer of 1905, construction began on a high school, at a cost of sum $30,000. That iconic building on Main Street was torn down in 1968 and replaced with the current structures.
In 1874, Merrick Cheney and George Ford opened a stage-stop in Grasshopper Valley to take advantage of the traffic generated by the Hayden Hill mines. On September 16, 1875, the Madeline Post Office was established there with Ford as postmaster. Why Ford selected the name Madeline is not known. The post office closed on October 17, 1882 and in the following year Ford sold his Grasshopper holdings to William T. Summers. This location is where Slate Creek enters Grasshopper. However, an 1893 U.S.G.S. map indicates the location at the lower end of Grasshopper.
The current town of Madeline came into existence in 1902 when the Nevada-California-Oregon Railroad extended its line through the region. On October 9, 1902, the Lassen County Board of Supervisors accepted the Madeline townsite. For the next fifteen years, prosperous times were to be found at Madeline. The advent of World War I and the subsequent depression of the 1930s had a dramatic impact, not only to the town of Madeline, but to the Plains as well, as seventy percent of its population left the area.
Note how the bank featured the eruption of Lassen Peak on their checks.
Believe it or not, bank fees have been around for a long time. In 1926, the Lassen Industrial Bank introduced a “service charge” on checking accounts. The bank’s reasoning that it was meant to provide better service. The bank stated: “For the past decade the cost of conducting the banking business with higher wages, higher taxes and higher cost of check books, stationery and supplies has increased greatly. The rate of income realized by the bank has not advanced with the increasing cost of doing business.”
Of course this did not go over well with its customers in the greater Susanville area. It should be noted that the bank also had branches in Bieber and Fall River Mills, and those folks registered their dissatisfaction.
A shallow lake, along Highway 44, with water that was found to be unfit to drink by the emigrants on the Lassen Trail. The travelers also found that Lassen’s Trail was not “fit” for travel either. According to the journal of Gorham Gates Kimball who was driving sheep to Idaho in 1865, it mentioned that Poison Lake ‘was so named from the effect of the bites of small red spiders which frequented the surface of the water.’ Apparently, merely washing your face and hands was enough to receive bites and experience red inflammation.
In 1916, William L. Wales, an engineer hired by the Honey Lake Valley Irrigation District, took the above photograph, as part of his exhaustive study to seek water. He proposed diverting annually 33, 962 acre feet from Butte Lake, (no one had ever filed a water right claim to it) . A canal would be constructed from Butte Creek to divert it to Poison Lake, thence onto to Pine Creek to Eagle Lake, through a tunnel there and onto the Honey Lake Valley. Very clever. However, the district was plagued with so many problems in the beginning that it never went past the initial study phase.
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In 1915, the Lassen County Free Library was established. In 1917, Lenala Martin was hired as County Librarian, a post she would hold for four decades.
Lenala was bound and determined to make the library and its branches accessible to all Lassen County residents. Besides the main library in Susanville in 1921 there were a total 76 branches—42 in elementary schools and 34 community branches. The community branches were held in individual homes, such as the A.J. Hall family in Doyle. The custodians of these branches received a salary of $2.50 a month. The library had a total of 17, 171 bound volumes.
On October 7, 1907 citrus owners organized the Fruit Growers Supply Company, as a co-operative purchasing agent for the growers. This was due in part, as the growers were having a difficult time securing wooden boxes to ship citrus. Little did they know that within a few years they would be operating a sawmill and box factory at Hilt, Siskiyou County. This turned out to be beneficial. In 1919, with difficulty securing wooden boxes due in part of the conditions of World War I, they expanded and bought 41,000 acres of timberland in Lassen County and established a mill and box factory at Susanville.
In their 1947 annual Fruit Growers report they noted that Hilt had produced 896,824,000 board feet of lumber and the box factory consumed 729,445,000 board feet of lumber. At Susanville the total cut. was 1,597,990,000 feet of lumber and the box factory consumed a total of 902,128,000 feet of lumber.
An indicator of growth with their successful marketing of the Sunkist brand, in the first year they needed 6,628,000 boxes. Forty years later the number of boxes had escalated for 40 million.
Forest service aerial of the south shore of Eagle Lake taken on 11/9/1941 from Flight No. 44—Hank Martinez
In the fall of 1941, the Lassen National Forest implemented the use of aerial photography as a tool to manage the forest’s resources. However, while the aerial mapping was completed, the outbreak of World War II suspended the work.
In February 1946, the project was brought back to life, to utilize the aerial photography taken five years ago. The forest service was pleased with the program. One of the many benefits, was that forest service personnel could conduct other kinds of field work than surveying during the summer. In the winter months, the aerials provided work for staff to plot out and design new roads, etc.
This calendar is unique in a different kind of way. Four of the photographs featured I purchased on Ebay. One of the most unique is that of Homer Lake taken in 1919. Where the photographer took the photograph was impressive. As usual it is an interesting collection of historical photographs of the region.
In 1916, William L. Wales, an engineer hired by the Honey Lake Valley Irrigation District, took the above photograph, as part of his exhaustive study to seek water. He proposed diverting annually 33, 962 acre feet from Butte Lake, (no one had ever filed a water right claim to it) . A canal would be constructed from Butte Creek to divert it to Poison Lake, thence onto to Pine Creek to Eagle Lake, through a tunnel there and onto the Honey Lake Valley. Very clever. However, the district was plagued with so many problems in the beginning that it never went past the initial study phase.
Spread the word, and encourage a friend to subscribe