Prior to the volcanic eruptions, it should be noted, a movement had begun to make Lassen Peak and its many hydrothermal features a national park. The eruptions brought the area out of obscurity and in 1916 Lassen became a national park. Loomis with a handful of others were the park’s most ardent supporters. The park needed all the assistance it could get. One of the biggest problems was Congress never provided adequate funding. By the mid-1920s, a portion of the funding hurdle was resolved.

One of Loomis’ lobbying efforts was to have the park headquarters located somewhere in the Manzanita Lake vicinity. This was problematic on several accounts. First and foremost the original park boundaries did not include that territory. Nevertheless, Loomis persisted. Loomis had spotted a 40-acre parcel at Reflection Lake, not far from Manzanita Lake. Loomis informed the park he would purchase it and donate it to the park to be used for “administrative purposes.” In 1926, he bought the parcel for $1,000. The following year park officials announced that Mineral would be the site for the headquarters. 

Loomis forged ahead and in 1927, he built a museum of native stone and reinforced concrete near Reflection Lake.  The museum served two purposes. One, it allowed him to showcase his famed photographic collection of the Lassen Peak eruptions, previously on display at his hotel at nearby Viola. The second reason was it served as a memorial to his only child, Louise Mae, who died in 1920.

In 1929, a park expansion bill was approved by Congress that would include the territory of Manzanita and Reflection Lakes. Loomis true to his word, in 1929 deeded his property to the park. Later that year, the park in consideration of the donation, granted Loomis a life estate to five acres that allowed him to continue with the museum and gave him the privilege to build a residence and photography studio. B.F. Loomis died in 1935, and his wife Estella in 1953.

Yet, the story does not end there. In the early 1970s, two geologists considered Chaos Crags a hazard, that a rock avalanche could threaten the facilities at Manzanita Lake and the Loomis Museum. As a result the park shut down those operations and eventually removed the buildings. Somehow, Loomis Museum was granted a reprieve. In 1993 the museum was fully rehabilitated and now operates on a seasonal basis.

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For many decades U.S. Highway 395 was referred to as the Three Flags Highway. The name representative that the highway began at the Mexico border and ended at the Canadian border. It had its humble origins in 1931 when a group of Lancaster, California businessmen as a way to promote the possibilities of a singular highway that traversed the east side of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges.

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It must be the dog days of summer, or is it sleep deprivation with roofers by day at my chateau and the Susanville Main Street reconstruction project at night?

For a respite, I have been working in the Susanville Cemetery in the afternoons. It is quiet there and the inhabitants are quite pleasant. There are lots of interesting headstones to be found there. However, there are several that leave me puzzled. They basically consist of chunks of unfinished stone. The one above has a hole drilled through it.

In the past, I have had a good luck in seeking an interpreter on an unusual headstone since the headstone’s inscription is in Japanese. A Japanese Lassen College student came to my aid to translate. As to the other stone monoliths, I let you draw your own conclusion.

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