The grave of Isaac N. Roop, Susanville Cemetery, circa 1966.
Susanville’s founder, Isaac Roop on why he came to the Honey Lake Valley, was different than Peter Lassen. On the other hand, Roop came to California in 1850. Roop was not a member of the gold rush. He came here from Ohio at the urging of his brother Josiah, who had a general store in the mining community of Shasta. Josiah asked his brother Isaac to operate the store while he returned east to bring his family out to California. Josiah never made back it, as he died en route. Isaac had no choice but to remain to settle his brother’s estate.
On June 14, 1853 was a turning point for Roop when a devastating fire in Shasta left him nearly destitute. A bit background on Roop. He was widowed and the father of three small children whom he left in the care of his in-laws. Roop decided not to rebuild in Shasta nor was he going to return to his family in Ohio. Instead he set out out on the Noble’s Emigrant Trail in the fall of 1853 in search of a location for a trading post. He found a spot at the very western end of the Honey Lake Valley. In June 1854, Roop with his brother, Ephraim returned and built a log cabin trading post/home that became the foundation of what would become Susanville.
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Horseshoe Lake is located in the southeast portion of Lassen Volcanic National Park. It is approximately a mile and a half northwest of Juniper Lake. It was originally known as Grassy Lake, but no doubt after the creation of the park, someone wanted to give it a more colorful name. In the1890s Adolph and Anna Olson had a squatter’s claim and for nearly twenty years used the area for summer livestock grazing. Jakey Lake located northeast of Juniper Lake was named for their son, Jakey Olson who died at the age of seventeen.
Today’s special Tuesday post is brought to you courtesy of the Lassen County Planning Commission. If you crave some entertainment and want to see some excitement, today’s Planning Commission meeting is your ticket. The show begins at 1:20 p.m. at the Veteran’s Memorial Building in Susanville. The hot topic is a proposed Dollar General store for the town of Doyle. Of course, I have a reserved seat, since I am Chairman of the Commission.
Schools are a perfect example of changes taking place all the time. On February 3, 1936, Lassen Union High School implemented a new schedule. Before the school trustees adopted the new program considerable input came from the faculty and the students.
School began at 8:45 a.m. The new schedule provide a thirty minute period prior to the noon hour. This enabled students on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday an opportunity to work on their hobbies, learn new skills, take advantage of the typing room, study hall or to confer with teachers. Thursday and Fridays were devoted for students to participate in meetings of various school organizations. It was the general consensus this allowed the valley students to engage in more school activities than in past because because they were denied such, due to them departing on the bus schedule.
It should be noted the lunch period was from noon to 12:45 p.m. The school day concluded at 3:38 p.m.
On my way back from the Susanville Cemetery after taking flowers there for Memorial Day, one can see the a portion of the roof of the old Lassen County Jail has caved in.
The building was shuttered in 1971 and has since become a “political football” of sorts. Numerous groups over the years have presented proposals to preserve the jail built in 1911. County officials on the other hand would listen, but no action taken. There is a bit of irony in this saga, as currently the county courthouse, next to the jail is going through a $8.4 million rehabilitation process.
The front of the jail, May 27, 2020.
At least the front of the jail appears to be holding its own. Many may not realize that it has been used as a backdrop of weddings performed at the Courthouse.
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Today, being the traditional Memorial Day, I thought the above was a fitting way to remember those. This 1918 postcard was sent by Alfred Talbott to his cousin Lola Murrer. Talbott served in the U.S. Army. At his time of service, it would be referred to as the Great War, but later became known as World War I.
Ever since the 1850s when Anglo settlement began in the Lassen region there would be reports from time to time of unusual noises being emitted, yet everyone pondered what it was and where it was coming from. Over time, many deduced it had come from the Lassen Peak region. An interesting account of such was reported on December 8, 1883 by the Susanville correspondent to the Reno Evening Gazette newspaper. The following is the published account of the same:
“For nearly a week a number of woodcutters some three miles west of town, have heard loud, heavy rumblings like distant thunder, or more properly like the firing of very heavy ordinance at a long distance away. The sound comes from a westerly direction, and as there is no mining or even an inhabitant for nearly a hundred miles in the direction from which the sounds proceeds, there seems to be no small amount of mystery connected with them. The sounds are heard at all times of the day and night and when not a cloud can be seen. Your correspondent has heard them in company of several others, every day for the past week and the only aparently possible solution of the mystery is, that the vast forces that formed Lassen Peak’s cinder cone and the other volcanoes to the west of here, and which have lain dormant for centuries, are once more coming to life and activity again.”
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Locally, the $64,000 question has been what is going on with the excavation of the old Fruit Growers/Sierra Pacific millpond site adjacent to Riverside Drive. Some readers may recall that in the Spring of 2018 I wrote about the property being placed on the market by Smith Properties. The property falls under county jurisdiction. As it has been relayed the property is being prepared as a parcel split—a joint venture of Hat Creek Construction and Nobles Construction. However, certain procedures have not been followed. I will bring this matter up at Tuesday’s June 2, Lassen County Planning Commission meeting, since certain officials have not responded to my request.
Fruit Growers Supply Company, 1936
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Red River operated numerous logging camps from 1913 through 1944 when it sold to Fruit Growers. The camps were assigned numbers, though in no particular order. The majority of the camps were short lived and only had a span of one to maybe three years. One of the more interesting camps was Camp 33, but referred to as Town Camp, as it was located less than a mile west of Westwood. What made it unique was that Red River’s company town of Westwood would experience from time to time a housing shortage for its employees. On occasion, this camp was used to house mill workers instead of loggers.
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Unknown gentleman in front of the Old Town General Store, circa 1930s. Courtesy of David Zoller.
In 1922, the Red River Lumber Company announced that Westwood was to become a permanent town. Additional investments in community buildings commenced, such as a American Legion Hall and Masonic Hall. Across the log pond was Old Town home to large immigrant population. The residents of Old Town felt left out with no hall of their own. They, too, had their own fraternal organization the Centro Hispano Americano Society and desired to have a place to hold their functions.
In 1926, the residents of Greenville built a modest community hall for $2,100. This inspired the Old Town to do the same. They contacted Fletcher Walker, Red River’s resident manager, with a proposal to build a hall similar to Greenville’s and offered to pay half the costs. Fletcher took the matter of under consideration and on August 20 wrote to His brother, Willis Walker, part of the local management, about the topic: “The Mexicans and wops want a recreation hall similar to the one recently built in Greenville. The Old Town bunch are willing to dig up $1,300 which will cover the labor cost, and they have $1,000 of it in the Bank, if you are willing to build a building on this basis. “The way it stands they cannot take part in the recreations on this side of the Pond as the majority of them do not speak English. A Hall of this sort would make a place for their parties, dances, a Movie occasionally, and a general social center and they have a Fraternal Society organized so they feel competent to police, janitor and generally conduct the building so it will make a better place for them all to live, and as this common labor is quite essential to the Plant as they do work that the short staked Americans will not stay long enough as to become sufficient in it has a commercial value to us that it is hard to measure dollars and cents, but I believe is a good proposition to go ahead with.”
Willis was agreeable and wrote back, “If for amusement only and thus we could do this much to retain men and helps on labor turnover.” Archie Walker who constantly watched Red River’s bottom line wanted to know if they would receive any rent for the building, or were they just donating the use of it? What is rather remarkable while the Walkers quibbled about spending so little money to build this hall, they did not blink an eye when in the previous year they had spent over $100,000 to build and furnish the halls for the American Legion and Masons, as well as the Westwood Theater.
For the residents of Old Town, they were just pleased to learn that their request for a hall was approved. When completed they referred to their hall as the El Centro.
