Name that mountain

October 27, 2017 Tim Purdy 1 Comment

It came to forefront in 1924 when a fire broke out on the west slope of the mountain that destroyed 7,000 acres to timberland. The fire had a legacy when a lookout was built on top, along with the first reforestation program in Lassen County.

History

Frederick West Lander

October 26, 2017 Tim Purdy Leave a comment

Worth the segment alone dealing with the Nobles Trail.

Frederick Lander was part of several expeditions of the 1850s to locate a route for a Pacific Railroad. There would be many turn of events during this time period, among them the nation’s civil war. When Lander arrived in the Smoke Creek/Honey Lake area, it just happened with the outbreak of the Pyramid Lake War of 1860, and there were several contributing events in the Honey Lake Valley that had a bearing. Lander was caught in the middle. He did keep an excellent account of those activities, which were published by the Desert Research Institute in 1993 with Joy Cleland as editor.

On a side note, even though he died in 1862, one hundred and thirty three years his estate funded a re-photographic survey of Eagle Lake; where in using photographs of the early 1900s, Desert Research Institute went back to those sites to photograph and examine the changes.

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History

Where are we–the answer

October 25, 2017 Tim Purdy Leave a comment

A 1923 view of Papoose Meadows. Courtesy of Lola Murrer Tanner

Originally known as Papoose Valley and some time in the 1920s it was changed to Papoose Meadows.

History

Susan River, 1899

October 24, 2017 Tim Purdy 1 Comment

As the Bizz Johnson Trail, formerly the Fernley & Lassen Railroad, is popular with locals and out-of-towners, alike, I thought some might enjoy today’s photograph. This was taken below Hobo Camp in 1899 prior to the railroad’s construction through there in 1913. The flume carried water to the Arnold Ditch would power the Arnold Planing Mill at the Richmond Road Bridge.

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History

1947 Kindergarten Program

October 23, 2017 Tim Purdy 1 Comment

I scanned this and a few others last spring from the Louise West papers who taught Kindergarten and First Grade in Susanville from the 1940s to the early 1970s. At that time, I had mentally prepared a post about this topic, it has since been lost to one of those deep recesses of my mind. Many will find the names quite familiar and these youngsters became a part of Lassen High’s Class of 1959.

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History

The T.N. Long Residence

October 22, 2017 Tim Purdy Leave a comment

Located on the 900 block of North Street once stood the residence of Thomas N. Long. It was built in the mid-1870s and demolished a century later. The residence had two owners, Long and Bundy & Winifred French. It was torn down in October 1977 and plans were for an apartment complex on the site that that never materialized.

History

Brick Building Bonanza

October 21, 2017 Tim Purdy 1 Comment

The Emerson Hotel located at Main & Lassen Streets, the current site of the Hotel Mt. Lassen.

In 1900-01, Reno building contractor, C.E. Clough kept busy in Susanville with the construction of four major brick buildings—Emerson Hotel, Methodist Church, Oakes & Philbrook and the Susanville Grammar School. Only two remain, the Methodist Church and Oakes & Philbrook, though the Susanville Grammar School was reincarnated, more about that later.

The brick was produced locally, though I am not sure where. In 1878, Robert M. Bean had a brick kiln along Piute Creek, a quarter mile north of town. That would place it around Marmo meadows.

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History

Pine Grove School

October 20, 2017 Tim Purdy Leave a comment

In the 1880s, Big Valley saw a major increase in population, thus more schools were needed. It did not take much to create a school district then. The residents needed to be more than five miles from the nearest school house and have ten school age children in a proposed district. The Pine Grove School was established in February 1888, from sections of the Cedar Run and Pioneer School Districts. On March 17, 1888, an election was held at the residence of J.M. Bassett to approve both a bond measure for $500 and a site for a new school. The voters, all eight, approved the bond measure, though the records do not indicate anything about the school site proposal. On August 3, 1925, the Board of Supervisors approved Pine Grove’s petition to consolidate with Bieber. The residents requested that the abandoned school not be sold, torn down or removed from its site. What became of it, I do not know.

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History

Where are we?

October 19, 2017 Tim Purdy 5 Comments

It was the site of one of the more unusual Native American/Anglo conflicts in Lassen County.

History

Ramhorn Springs

October 18, 2017 Tim Purdy Leave a comment

Ramhorn Springs and Campground is located a sort distance east of Highway 395 between Secret Valley and the Madeline Plains. I was told recently, and I do not know if it is a fact, that the springs dried up in the recent drought. Anyhow, bighorn sheep once roamed much of eastern Lassen County. In 1881, Lum Roberts killed one on Skedaddle Mountain that weighed 200 pounds! In the early 1920s, only one band of sheep, consisting of about forty head, remained on Observation Mountain, not that far from Ramhorn Springs. The majority of that herd perished in the winter of 1922. Lassen County Game Warden, C.O. Fisher, noted that only six sheep were still alive at Observation in 1927 and by 1931 it was deemed that the sheep were extinct in the region.

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