Lassen Community College’s Gunsmithing Program is the oldest program of its kind in the nation.
The following is from the Lassen Advocate of 5 September 1946 providing a glimpse of the humble origins of the program.
“The only gunsmithing course being offered in a college or trade school in the United States is being given this year at Lassen Junior College.
“While the market for fine guns has multiplied in this country, old time master gunsmiths have declined in numbers, Charles W. Frost, gunsmithing instructor, explained. Improved roads into wilderness areas, shortened work weeks, longer vacations and wider familiarity with firearms from service in the armed forces were reasons given by Frost for increasing opportunities for skilled gunsmiths.
“The genial middle aged German, Swiss or Belgian gunsmiths so familiar to sportsmen of almost every fair-sized town a generation ago have, for the most part, passed on,” Frost pointed out. These old gunsmiths, who had become master crafstmen through a seven-year apprenticeship n Europe guarded the secrets of their craft so closely that not more than a handful of young men of their day learned it from them.
“Frost was one of these fortunate few learning to be a master craftsman under Fred Muhl, an old-school gunsmith in Bloomington, Ill. For 15 years before coming to Susanville a year ago, he operated his own gunsmithing shop in Arcadia and Eureka on the coast. He also taught musketry at Humboldt State Teachers College.
“This is not a tinker’s course,” Frost said, “It’s not just to teach repair of second hand guns.” The two-year course, with a third year optional, will prepare graduates to build fine rifles.
“For example, Model 6 Winchester rifles, selling for about $45, will bring from $200 to $400 when thoroughly rebuilt by a master gunsmith, according to Frost. He said such fine guns don’t attempt to compete with production-line factory models, which is another reason for only students with serious craftsmen ambitions to sign up for the course.
“Today there are probably less than a score of master gunsmiths west of Salt Lake City. “All of this seems to indicate,” he said, “that there is an assured future for any young man with the intelligence and determination to complete the course outlined.”
“Harland Fritts of Susanville is beginning his second year of gunsmithing at Lassen Junior College. He admitted it was a tough course. “It’s a wide open field,” he said. “And I like the work.”
Three other students have signed up to start the course this year.
“The two-year college course covers all phases of gunsmithing but barrel making and custom stock making, with correlated academic background courses about half time in mathematics, science and English. The additional year of graduate work includes barrel making, stock making, engraving and metallurgy.
“Trade courses in gunsmithing curriculum are mechanical drawing, precision woodwork, including pattern making; machine shop; soldering, brazing and welding; firearms’ history, design and construction; ammunition, including catrridge-case and bullet design, ballistics; sights, iron and optical fitting, chambering, turning, straightening and finishing of barrels.
“Academic background courses include geometry, physics, chemistry, English, accounting, typing and free-hand drawing.”
Awhile back Kay Ole Leary wrote: “I am making a book out of my mother’s memories of growing up in lumber mill towns. One of her vivid memories was of being warned to NEVER play in the sawdust piles, no matter how much fun it looked like it would be to do so. The spontaneous combustion inside the piles would create pockets of fire, leading to, in her words, “a horrible death.”
