A rock chuck also known as a Yellow-bellied marmot
While back east they may have their ground hogs, we have our rock chucks that can easily be spotted around many parts of the region. They do have a special affinity for the Lassen Community College campus. First time students who see them on campus are intrigued. It has been mentioned to me a time or two, that the college should replace its mascot, a cougar, with a rock chuck.
In 1898, one local weather observer gave his opinion of that particular ground hogs day. “There were several gleams of sunshine in which the festive rodent might have disported if so disposed. As a weather indicator the ‘ground hog’ is not a howling success in this strip of the country. He is a fraud.”
Okay, some people did not take kindly that they felt I left them hanging about Grant Smith Company and the bondholders of the Bly Tunnel. I should have mentioned at the conclusion that I would do a follow up. Here it is, enjoy!
What Grant Smith did not initially disclose to the bondholders was that the original plans called for the intake to tap the lake forty feet below the current surface. They only told the bondholders they did eight feet, citing the volcanic rock bottom too difficult. In addition, Leon Bly and Grant Smith agreed to the change, but it was not revealed to anyone else. Because of these problems, the irrigation districts could not use the water until they agreed to sign off its completion. Stymied, on September 8, 1923 the districts and Leon Bly agreed to accept a final settlement, and $25,000 would be withheld to correct the defects. Lo and behold in the beginning of the 1924 irrigation system, during one of the worst droughts ever experienced locally and throughout California, it was discovered Grant Smith only did three feet below the surface at the intake! The districts would need a lot more money than stipulated.
Grant Smith’s tunnel works, Eagle Lake, 1922–Courtesy of Lola L. Tanner
That was the front page headline of the Lassen Mail of January 31, 1936. the newspaper reported that L.E. “Gene” DeForest purchased the Ramsey Ranch south of Susanville (Many people know this day as Les Allen’s Ranch on Richmond Road. Also included in the sale was the 1,400 acre Swain Ranch on the Madeline Plains.
The other big transaction was Fruit Growers Supply Company sold the ranch north of town along Piute Creek to the Republic Electric Power Company for $35,000. (The property today known as Susanville Ranch Park). Fruit Growers had acquired it in 1919, for Bagwell Springs that they intended use for the mill operation. The company spent several thousand dollars to build a pipeline from their to their mill adjacent to Riverside Drive (that later became Sierra Pacific). Not a drop of water flowed the pipeline. The downstream water users object and through the court obtained an injunction. After that Fruit Growers leased the ranch. Republic Power wanted to water rights to the spring since they also owned the existing Susanville Water Company and local electric company.
Susanville, the Lassen County seat, is beautifully located at the base of a mountain range where the timber line meets the great expanse of Honey Lake Valley. The Susan River flows down its canyon from the west and through Susanville. Highways enter from four directions and the Southern Pacific railway runs east and west through the town and up the Susan River canyon. The population is 5,000.
The big lumber mills of the Lassen Lumber & Box Company and Fruit Growers Supply Company are located in Susanville employing 2,000 men between them and giving the community a big payroll. Several other smaller industries flourish. The farmers of the Honey Lake Valley and surrounding valleys bring their products to Susanville for sale or shipment and buy their merchandise.
The town has two miles of paved streets and other improvements that would be a credit to communities three times the size. There is an electric light system furnishing cheap power and the water system takes it water from a large spring several miles from Susanville in the mountains. A modern sewage disposal plant as just been built by the city to replace the old method of draining into the river.
Susanville has an excellent high school, three grammar schools, county library, five churches and several active fraternal groups and societies.
The above material was from a Lassen County Chamber of Commerce brochure.
In 1938, Mirl Simmons, of Susanville’s Eastmans Studios was one busy guy. He was busy filming and photographing the eight counties then that made up the Shasta-Cascade Wonderland Association. That association was preparing to display all the wonders the region possessed at the upcoming Golden Gate International Exposition to be held in San Francisco during 1939.
Early one morning in May 1938, Simmons made a journey to Secret Valley in hopes of capturing on film sage hens. What he found instead was a herd of co-operative antelope that he made a motion picture of instead.
The abandoned Milford Flour Mill as it appeared in 1901. Courtesy of the A.J. Mathews family
Prior to 1892, there was a lack of financial institutions in Lassen County, namely a bank. This presented challenges as to what to do with one’s money. In the mid-1860s, William Brockman (1836-1923) operated a blacksmith shop in Susanville. One may not think of it as a cash cow business, but it was. The blacksmith shop then, was like a full service gas station day, one that does vehicle repairs. There was tremendous traffic through the town, it being the shortest route to the Idaho mines. To give you an idea how profitable it was, Brockman recounted that at one time he had $7,000 in gold coin buried in the corner of the blacksmith shop. It should be noted with the completion of the transcontinental railroad, traffic would soon be greatly diminished. In 1867, Brockman closed the shop, and went onto to assemble a large ranching empire.
Another example was Milford resident, Joseph C. Wemple (1830-1921). One of his enterprises in the 1870s was the operation of the Milford Flour Mill, the first one built in the Honey Lake Valley. Initially, it was a lucrative affair. As one family member later recalled that Joe would have in excess of $10,000.00 in cash in his house, proceeds from the flour mill.
My how times have changed. Take for instance this 1923 advertisement for Susanville’s Model Laundry:
“Men do all the washing at this Laundry. No woman could do the job. We would not let them. They’d break down in a hurry. The work is too hard—too heavy—too continuous—too tiresome. Sheets, bed spreads, pillow cases, so on, that weigh only a couple of pounds when dry come out of the tub ten times heavier and it takes a pretty husky woman to pull loads like this back and forth. Let Men and Machines do the RUBBING and SCRUBBING.”
435 Roop Street and the remains of Model Laundry., September 3, 2018
These stock corrals with their loading chutes are becoming relics of a by gone era. According to a 1971 Lassen National Forest Service has the corral featured as Coyote Corral about two miles north of McCoy Flat Reservoir. It was built in the 1960s by DeBragas and Roney.
Large portions of western Lassen County was the summer range for ranchers of the Sacramento Valley, with those from Tehama County who were predominate. Many of the geographical features there are named for them: Bogard, McCoy, Logan, Cone, Campbell, and Willard to name a few.
Janesville Oddfellows Hall—Courtesyof Howard & Gladys Scott
For whatever unknown reason the residents of Janesville were reluctant to embrace electricity, unlike their Standish neighbors. In the fall of 1929 there were a handful of Janesville residents who campaigned the citizens to sign up for electricity so a power line could be constructed from Standish. By November 1929, sixteen people had signed up, but to make the project a reality required twenty sign ups. The organizers were stymied by the reluctance of the Janesville Masonic and Oddfellow Halls to sign up. After all, it was thought these two buildings held many public functions, and they would be better served with electricity. In 1930, a power line was extended to Janesville for the initial subscribers.
Located on the north side of Skedaddle Mountain, it was so named for Lewis Brubeck (1852-1925), who in 1881 established a ranch on the east shore of Honey Lake, that would later become the railroad town of Amedee. In 1888, Brubeck purchased the property that the this spring is located on from Robert Elwood for $200. On February 8, 1899 Brubeck sold the property that consisted of 441 acres to Nevada sheepmen Flanigan & Dunn for $1,500. By the way, depending upon your age or your musical taste, Brubeck’s grandson was the acclaimed jazz musician, Dave Brubeck.
