Wooden grave markers were not that common in this region, with exception of Hayden Hill, which all those graves markers were made out of wood and they were destroyed in the town’s great fire of 1910.

Luckily, I photographed the wooden markers in the Susanville. Since then, they have been obliterated altogether. I did have some one volunteer, whose hobby is wood working, to make replacements. Needless to say, that did not come to fruition.

The following is Jesse Cole’s obituary that appeared in Lassen Advocate on 3 March 1898: The Death of Jesse Cole.

“Last Monday night [February 28], between the hours of 10 and 11 o’clock, Jesse Cole, an old resident of this section and a Justice of the Peace of this Township, died suddenly at his residence on Pine Street. He had been afflicted for years with some form of heart disease, and several times during his residence here has been near death’s door. About a month ago he was obliged to call medical counsel and with its help had been practically resume his usual avocations. On the evening of his death he had gone to the post office as his want for the mail, and returning home, complained of feeling cold. Stimulants were administered and he was enabled to get to bed, but alarming symptoms manifested themselves and help was summoned. Before his friends and neighbors could respond the grim visitant Death had entrapped the cold from with its mantle and. borne to other and brighter realms the wearied spirit.

“Jesse Cole was a native of Atchison county, Missouri. He came to California in 1862; located at Milford in this valley and has lived in this State ever since. In 1869 he was married to Miss Martha Smith at Napa and after some years in the lower country, returned to this section. At the last general election he was elected Justice of the Peace, Township No. 1 and the office he discharged to the satisfaction of our people and with the credit to himself. The Superior Court when in session, adjourned Wednesday that attorneys and friends might attend the funeral services at the M.E.Church, where an impressive sermon was preached by Rev. Rosen. The Foresters, of which the deceased was a member, conducted the services and laid the remains of their late brother to rest with solemn rites of that Order. The funeral procession  was headed by the Mountain Echo Band and at the grave a beautiful  and appropriate selection was rendered by the choir, consisting of Mrs. J. Alexander, Miss Dovie True, Dr. Dozier and A.H. Taylor.

“A wife and son remain to mourn the loss of kind and indulgent husband and father, and to receive the hearty sympathies of this community.”

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One of three communities in Big Valley, Bieber of the trio is in Lassen County, the two others,, Adin and Lookout, are in Modoc County. In the 1870s, Adin’s growth was a result of the Hayden Hill gold mines to its south.

Bieber was originally known as Chalk Ford because of the chalky nature of the ground. The solid ground at this location on the Pit River made it the easiest place to cross. In May 1873, Theodore Pleisch claimed 160 acres and built a cabin there. In 1874, development began slowly and the town’s first two houses were built by Anton & William Gerig. In 1876, Max Posner opened the Josephenson General Store, that town’s first store. In 1877, Nathan Bieber (1858-1922) arrived there to manage the Josephson General Store, owned by his uncle, Max Posner. Bieber had a natural talent as a merchant and made the store a success. Lafayette S. Barnes, editor of the Adin Hawkeye dubbed Bieber the “young prince merchant.” On November 17, 1877, Bieber purchased Pleisch’s property, where the town had slowly developed, for $600. The town continued to grow and on May 6, 1881, its first newspaper, the Mountain Tribune, made its debut—an effort to elevate the area from a mere frontier settlement to that of a town. However, the 1880 census tallied only 43 residents. In 1884, the town plat of Bieber was surveyed and recorded.

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This caught my eye of a 1935 illustration with an automobile and an airplane on Honey Lake. I have many tales, when the lake is dry, that certain car enthusiast had roamed on the dry lake bed. Like a mirage, it is not really that dry. There places that appears to dry on the surface. there are soft spots, and many a poor soul has encountered them, got really stuck and stranded on the supposedly dry lake bed.

In the summer of 1931, there were two notable events on the dry Honey Lake bed. On August 23, 1931, Fred McKinley, a pilot and Miss Barbara McGrath, rodeo air queen of Alturas, landed on Honey Lake on a  trip to Alturas for the scheduled grand opening celebration of Laird Airport there. McKinley was arrested in Alturas when statements were made while stopped on the lake bed, he attempted assault and rape Miss McGrath. Rumors and stories abound, but McKinley was found not guilty of all charges. The main incident that forced the landing was Miss McGrath’s taking ill from turbulence experienced in the air.

In a related matter of the McGrath incident, law enforcement officials went out on Honey Lake seek evidence of the airplane’s tracks. During their search they discovered a decapitated and armless skeleton. Identification of the body was impossible. It was judged to be a middle-sized man and that the remains had been on the lake bed for at least two years. The skeletal remains, still clothed, contained $22.12, a suitcase, a pocket knife and a corn cob pipe. The remains were interred in the Lassen Cemetery at Susanville, Case closed.

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In January 1914, Lassen County sought a slogan for next year’s Panama-Pacific Exposition to be held in San Francisco. A contest was held in which public was encouraged submit slogans. Some of the entries, were in my opinion, questionable. A notable one was “The Poor Man’s Mecca.” Other entries submitted were: Seek No Further; Just What I want; Look and Long No Longer; and the Land of Milk, Honey, and  Apples. The runner up, Lassen, the Last West. The contest ended on February 6, 1914. The winning slogan was the Lucky Land of Lassen. It was not revealed as to who came up with it. It was widely used for over two decades.

Tim

The Shinn Ranch in remote eastern Lassen County is not a place one just happens upon. It has been  years since I was last there with a film crew doing an episode of Off Road California.

It was in 1870, when fifty-year old Oliver Shinn located there with his family of five children from Baker, Oregon. He remained there until his sudden death in 1883. According to his obituary, “Mr. Shinn was awakened from a sound sleep at about 10 o’clock Thursday night by coughing and upon getting out of bed, dropped dead on the floor. It seems that he troubled an aneurism of the pulmonary artery and in his efforts to clear his throat this was ruptured, causing instant death.” The following year, his widow, Louisa Shinn sold the 640-acre ranch to George D. Winters for at that time a substantial sum of $6,000. The Winters family had extensive holdings, which included the nearby Smoke Creek Ranch.

One of the interesting features found there was a grove of cottonwood trees that encompassed some fifteen acres. The trees were planted by Winters in 1889 in order to increase his property holdings there. On April 3, 1893, Winters was issued a 160-acre land patent that he filed under a section of the Timber Culture Act “to encourage growth of timber on the Western Prairie.”

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