History

Snow & Ski

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Johnsville, January 15, 1911—R.D. Sifford

There is no doubt, a snowstorm like the region experienced in January 1911, would certainly disrupt life for a bit, but it would be great in the long run. Consider that this storm dumped eight feet of snow in Susanville; five feet at both Milford and Standish, and a whopping eight feet at Amedee.

Of course, over in Johnsville, Plumas County they were accustomed to an abundance of snowfall. As a matter of fact, it is considered the birthplace of skiing in the United States. It was in 1853 when Norwegian Charles Nelson introduced to the mining community long board skis This was intended as a functional purpose to traverse the snowy mountain terrain to access other communities. It was just a matter time, that to relieve the boredom of the winter doldrums, that in 1861 those miners held downhill ski races. Thus a new sport came into being. It should be noted that long board ski races are still held there.

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Hallelujah Junction

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

History

Janesville Landmark Update

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Main Street, Janesville, January 25, 2020

In case you missed it, an alert subscriber, Jane Hail, provided a bit of additional insight. After all, she has a family connection. Her husband, Roger Hail, is a nephew to the late Clyde Knox. According to the information Jane provided, it was a project of Clyde’s, though he never did get around to finishing them.

Now, my next Janesville research involves the demise of the town’s Methodist Church. I came across some of old notes of mine, that it was put up for sale in 1946. Stay tuned.

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History

An Antelope Grade Incident

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The Spires
The Spires, Antelope Grade

Antelope Grade on Highway on Highway 139 north leaving Susanville has undergone changes over the years. The grade first came into existence in 1867 when a crude wagon road was constructed. Crude was a very appropriate term. With the increased population growth in Big Valley, the traveling public clamored for improvements to the grade. In the fall of 1878, the Lassen County Board of Supervisors sent a survey crew to plot a new road on the mountain. The county estimated the cost of the new grade at $1,000. Of that amount individuals had already contributed $300 to the cause. The county budgeted $300. The county stated the balance would have come from donations. A campaign to raise the funds from Big Valley and Hayden Hill provided the balance. By the summer of 1879, most of the work was completed, with volunteer labor making up the workforce.

While new grade was superior to the original one, it was still a
narrow, treacherous road. Of course, accidents were a rather common occurrence. In November 1890, for instance, Lewis Knudson was returning to his Willow Creek home accompanied by Dave Thomas. Half way up the grade, they encountered William Brockman’s freight team. Knudson pulled his brand new spring wagon over to the edge of road as safely as possible. As Brockman’s team passed by, it spooked one of Knudson’s horses where the animal bolted and jumped off the grade, dragging the other horse and wagon down the mountain. The sudden jolt, threw Knudson out of the wagon, but fortunately he did not sustain any injuries. However, Dave Thomas was not as lucky. It was not until the wagon crashed into a large boulder that it came to an abrupt stop. At the point of impact, Thomas was thrown from the wagon, his left
shoulder struck a rock and was dislocated.

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History

Forest Fire Commentary

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The Gold Fire, south of Adin, 2020.

When conducting research, one can easily get sidetracked, while searching for a particular item, your eye catches something of interest. This happen to me recently while working on the post about Hobo Wells Hydroponics. On the same page the Sacramento Bee of August 16, 1977 had an article about that topic, there was a report about a forest fire on the Salmon River in Siskiyou County. The Bee Correspondent Marjie Lambert interviewed some of the residents there, which they chimed in the forest service was not doing well in handling fires. Sound familiar? Herewith is an excerpt on that topic.

”Les and Johnny Bennett and their friend, Vince Elliott, agree that fires are handled wrong these days. ‘All the Indians and miners and cattlemen used to do regular burns every year,” said Vince. ‘That kept everything nice and green. That way there wouldn’t be big forest fires.

”Then the U.S. Forest Service put a stop to the controlled burns. The three men nodded their heads, saying they had it coming.

”’Now when one of these things starts it wont stop until it burns itself out or maybe in September the rains will come,’ said Les.”

Tim

 

History

Susanville, Nevada – 1952

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Smoke Creek Desert
Smoke Creek Desert looking towards Sheepshead, fall, 1977

In the spring of 1952, another Nevada annexation movement sprung to life. In this particular instant it involved annexing Lassen, Modoc and Plumas counties to the Battle Born state.

An intrepid reporter of Susanville’s Lassen Advocate did an informal survey of talking to people one day to get a feeling. Interesting the responses were divided. Here is a sampling of a few:

Opal Proffitt, “I don’t I’d like be in Nevada. I don’t like the idea of gambling. Mrs. James Hodges stated that it feels like we are a part of Nevada and had no objections. George Lovell “I’d like to belong to Nevada myself. They have no debt and think we’d all be benefitted.”. Norman Vornado “I would be against it. I am a teacher and the pay in that field is far below California’s rate.” William Blackmer “I think we’re a part of California and we’d better stay there. Finally, J.F. McGrath “We need to protect Lassen’s virtue, with annexation there would be wide open gambling.”

So it goes, just another failed annexation movement.

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History

Where Are We — Dow Wells

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Dow Flat & Wells, October 8, 2020

In 1875, William Dow located on the northwest side of Eagle Lake. He remained there until 1886 and the following year he sold 465 acres in that region to Albert Gallatin.

Dow Flat and Wells is located a short distance north of Spalding Tract. In the distance is Dow Butte. In 1994, the Dow Butte Lookout was removed and relocated next to the Eagle Lake Marina.

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History

Railroad to Burney?

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Fruit Growers Locomotive No. 105 at Halls Flat, 1946.

In 1940, with the Red River Lumber Company making plans to log north of Westwood in the Poison Lake and Blacks Mountain region further discussions were held as to construct a railroad line to Burney to harvest their extensive Burney Tract that contained two billion board feet of merchantable timber. An initial railroad survey was conducted with a starting point at Poison Lake. The major barrier was that of Hat Creek Rim. It was determined to follow the rim and slowly make a descent at Cassel and then onward to Burney. It was estimated it would cost one million dollars to construct the line. Fletcher Walker, the resident manager of Westwood was eager to build and wrote, “We would increase the Veneer Plant output and get good logs to operate it and this alone would more than pay for the cost to build the railroad.” However, no one else in the Red River family shared Fletcher’s railroad proposal. In 1941, Red River made the decision to sale Westwood and the Burney Tract.

In 1944, after intense negotiations, Fruit Growers Supply Company purchased Westwood and the Burney Tract. They, too, contemplated to build a railroad line similar to the one proposed by Red River. As late as 1951, Fruit Growers still considered the option of a railroad to Burney. Yet, changes were occurring rapidly with the conversion to cardboard boxes, that forced Fruit Growers to reconsider its future plans, as the needed for wooden boxes to ship citrus would eventually be eliminated.

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Exploring Lassen County's Past