History

Gerlach, Nevada

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Gerlach, 1914
Gerlach, 1914

 Gerlach is Becoming a Metropolis. The town of Gerlach on the end of the Western Pacific is already the metropolis of northern Washoe County and is growing so rapidly that it will have a voting precinct of its own this fall.

It will be the old Salt Marsh precinct, but a change will be made of the polling place to that point. The Buffalo Meadows farmers are kicking about the additional twenty mile drive to the polls, but as they previously had to go thirty-five miles, it is thought that the extra distance will not hurt them.

There is a strong attraction possessed by Gerlach, which now boasts four saloons and more coming.

Long Valley, some forty miles to the north, is also settlig up rapidly. There is a reclamation scheme in progress there and it is forecasted that the valley will be thickly settled and prosperous before many years pass.

Gerlach is now the freight division point for the Western Pacific and is the shipping place for the southern end of Surprise Valley, California, to which place a county road was recently constructed.

Source: Lassen Advocate,  2 September 1910

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History

The Meadows

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The Meadows. Courtesy of Darryl Hattenhauer
The Meadows. Courtesy of Darryl Hattenhauer

For those who have have been enjoying skiing at Coppervale this season, you need to thank Bert and Mary Bain who established it.

First a little background. Back in the 1930s several road houses were established along highway 36 between Susanville and Westwood. They initially started out simple first with a gas station and restaurant, and later expanding. You can find a complete account of these in Red River: End of an Era.

At the same time, skiing, and more particularly ski jumping was all the rage throughout Northern California, where numerous professional events were staged. In 1934, the Paul Bunyan Ski Club even sponsored one which they built a ski jump on Fredonyer.  In the spring of 1935, Bert and Mary Bain purchased The Meadows. First they expanded operations with an enlarged restaurant, but added a bar and dance floor. To attract amateur skiers, Bain had a ski jump constructed across the highway from The Meadows. Bain recruited noted skiers Sid Knudson and Phil Brown to design and build a small jump for his guests, and thus the Coppervale Ski Hill was born.

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History

Roop vs. Worley Mountain

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FGS barn
The old Fruit Growers barn, June 2, 2015, with the mountain in question. in the background.

Asa M. Fairfield lamented that the only item named after Susanville’s founder, Isaac Roop, was a street. Incidentally, Roop himself named that street when the town was plotted. Fairfield idolized  Roop. If Fairfield and Roop had been Roman Catholic, he would had petitioned the Vatican to make Roop a saint. Continue reading Roop vs. Worley Mountain →

History

Charles Gardner, Timber Cruiser

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The grave of Charles Gardner, Westwood Cemetery, 2013.
The grave of Charles Gardner, Westwood Cemetery, 2013.

In August 2013, I conducted a Westwood Cemetery Tour. Since Westwood began as a company town of the Red River Lumber everyone worked together in a common goal.

With that in mind,  in every operation, everyone plays an important role, as one cannot exist without the other. But before you can build a mill, you first need timber. That is where Charles Gardner, along with brother Irvine, better known as “Ippy.” The Gardner brothers, along with E.G. Scammon were part of the early California timber cruisers working under T.B. and Clinton Walker to not only examine timberlands, but also had the tedious jobs of going to a variety of county courthouses to examine land titles, so see who owned what parcel, values, taxes, etc. In a relatively short time frame of just over a decade Red River owned nearly 800,000 acres timberland in California making it the third largest landowner in California, only behind the railroads, who received their land for free from the government. Even after the Red River assembled its timberland, there was still plenty of work for the timber cruisers to do. Chief among them, was to plot out every year which sections of land that would be logged. As it was in the past, timber is still part of Red River’s heritage, now operating under Red River Forests, which is managed by Beaty & Associates.

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History, News

St. Patrick’s Cemetery Tour

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Cahlan Family Plot.

As spring is around the corner, many are probably antsy to get out and  about. With that in mind, the Lassen Ale Works and I are proposing a special Susanville Cemetery Tour to visit those hardy pioneers who hailed from Ireland and played a role in our region’s history.

Among the graves to be visited is that of John Cahlan, president of the Bank of Lassen County.  Richard and Margaret Thompson that involves a forbidden marriage, murder and a governor’s pardon. Jeremiah Wood the patriarch of the Wood family that has ranched for many generations in the region. Of course, there is the strange tale which Patrick Bagin who went for a final swim in Leavitt Lake with a sixty pound rock round tied around his neck.

Everything currently is in the preliminary planning stages. However, we would like to take an informal poll to see if the interest is there. Please either leave a comment or send me an email. Please take note this is a paid subscriber event. It only cost $5.00 a month to subscribe.

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News

My first anniversary

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The old web page shuts down.

Without any fanfare this site was launched a year ago today.  It was not completely assembled, since the following day the region was hit with a powerful windstorm and thus without power. In addition, my skills in doing the daily posts among other things was a bit of a challenge. Back in November, 2014 I had started doing on-line tutorials, but while some concepts I could grasp, others seemed part of the mystery of the universe. However, when push comes to shove, and its no longer academic, but hands on, I learned, and I am still learning, adding new features and materials.

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Of course, while there is a ton of material available for free, it is not free for me. There are various costs involved in having a website like this, domain, hosting fees etc. If you read my daily blog, there is a link at the end, wherein for a mere five dollars a month you can subscribe and support. While the link provides the devil in the details,  paid subscribers do receive some extra benefits, such as the daily notification on the topic du jour,  participate in local tours and receive historical narratives such as the 1956 paper on the Eagle Lake Lava (Ice) Caves. Most importantly just sit back and enjoy.

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History

Hazel Post Office

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Hazel York
Little Miss Hazel York

While many are aware that Lassen County was dotted with numerous one-room schools, it applied to post offices, too. Some operated for decades, like Merrillville, some short-lived like Hazel, and there are a few ghost ones.

For many, it might be hard to believe that Grasshopper Valley, a sagebrush plain in north-central Lassen County, would even have enough population to support a settlement, let alone a post office. Grasshopper,  it should be noted came to the forefront in the 1870s with mining activity at Hayden Hill. In 1883, John Calvin York purchased the 440 acre Madeline ranch and stage-stop in Grasshopper. Over the years it simply became known as Yorks.

Very briefly, it became known as Hazel, when the family petitioned to have a post office established there. It was granted on May 14, 1895, but postal officials revoked it on July 9, 1895. The post-office was named for York’s latest addition to the family, his granddaughter, Hazel Mae York born there on February 14, 1895.

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History

Lassen County’s First Zoo

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Elk, with the Wingfield residence in the background. Courtesy of Alphozene Terrill
Elk, with the Wingfield residence in the background. Courtesy of Alphozene Terrill

In 1910, George Wingfield established a summer residence south of Susanville, and more about that in a future article. He had a special interest in wildlife and established his own little preserve. That fall, he fenced off eighty acres for an elk and deer park. In 1914, he added four buffalo to his collection. This became a major attraction to local residents to view these creatures.

Wingfield also brought in such “exotic” species as peacocks and mammoth size frogs imported from New Orleans. He had two small lakes constructed on the property to plant with a wide variety of fish.

Where the buffalo and elk roam at Wingfield Ranch. Courtesy of Lola L. Tanner
Where the buffalo and elk roam at Wingfield Ranch. Courtesy of Lola L. Tanner

In 1923 Wingfield sold the property to the Lassen Lumber & Box Company who were primarily interested in the timberland he owned there. The buffalo were shipped to Wingfield Park in Reno where they were on display for many years. The fenced enclosure to keep the elk in was no longer maintained and the animals began to roam the region, with spottings from nearby Bald Mountain to Willow Creek Valley. The elk were poached by hunters over the years, and were wiped out by the early 1940s.

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History

Ramelli Dairy

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Ramelli butter wrapper. Courtesy of Eslie Cann
Ramelli butter wrapper. Courtesy of Eslie Cann

In 1887, Cesar A. Ramelli emigrated from Switzerland to the United States where he eventually located at Purdy, Long Valley, California. The area is best known to many as the region behind present day Bordertown. There, and later, with another location the Bella Vista in the Truckee Meadows, he along with his three sons, had seventy-five cows. From that herd, butter and cheese were made. The cheese was made into blocks of 10, 20 to 25 pounds which was sold in the Reno stores.

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Exploring Lassen County's Past