Susanville – Riverside Hospital

November 18, 2015 Tim Purdy 1 Comment

Riverside Hospital, courtesy of Betty Barry Deal

This hospital was located at 2005 River Street, Susanville. There was a time in the area’s past that there were two local institutions where one was born–Potter’s and Riverside. My siblings were born at Potter’s, while I was born at Riverside, a few years ago. Rarely, did births occur at the Lassen County Hospital. During the 1950s, my Aunt Irene Purdy Trout worked at the latter, which they affectionally referred to as “County.” She recalled only one birth there for nearly a decade that she worked there. That all changed in the early 1960s, when a new Lassen County Hospital was constructed next to the old one. By that time, Ma Potter after some 30 plus years as a midwife was ready to retire and changes were on the horizon with Riverside and its aging facility in which it would be torn down in 1969.

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History

Mark W. Haviland

November 17, 2015 Tim Purdy Leave a comment

Mark W. Haviland was one of the many early Honey Lake Valley settlers of the 1850s who remained awhile, then moved on to the proverbial greener pastures. For him that was Paradise Valley, Nevada where he died in 1894. Continue reading Mark W. Haviland →

History

Soldier Bridge School Conclusion

November 16, 2015 Tim Purdy 2 Comments

Soldier Bridge School Bus at Litchfield.

In 1916, the school was located on the Gibson/Haley Ranch and it was later relocated to Litchfield. On February 25, 1929, a $10,000 bond election was held to build a new schoolhouse at the Litchfield location and the bond was narrowly approved, 40 for and 37 against. The opponents retained an attorney, Ben V. Curler, to file a protest against the bond measure, the school district, and the County Board of Supervisors, the latter having had the authority to sell the bonds. The opponents argued that there were only 34 students and no prospect of any increase in student enrollment. In addition, they stated, the majority of the voters supporting the bonds were non-taxpayers and while most of the property owners favored a new building, they thought the proposed cost too excessive. On April 10, 1929, the school trustees and the County Board of Supervisors held a joint meeting to seek a solution. They agreed on a smaller school, only $6,500 in bonds was issued to construct the school. In 1951, Soldier Bridge, Standish and Bridgeport Schools were consolidated to form the Shaffer Union Elementary School District.

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History

Sergi-Sacco Wedding

November 15, 2015 Tim Purdy 1 Comment

Sergi Cake — The Sergi-Sacco wedding cake. Courtesy of C. Derek Anderson

One just never knows how pieces of history make it to the surface. The above photograph is just one example. When the bar from Marion’s on Weatherlow Street was being moved to a new home in Chester, some interesting material somehow managed to get lodged behind the bar. There was an assortment of about a dozen Red River Lumber Company photographs and this wedding cake picture.

On 10:00 a.m. Sunday, November 15, 1936 at Sacred Heart Church, Rose Agnes Sergi and James Sacco were married. The bridesmaids were Louise Saffores, Concha Larrea and Camilla Alosi. The best man was Marion Larrea. After the ceremony a wedding breakfast was held at the Veteran’s Memorial Hall, with 500 guests. The centerpiece at the bride’s table was a magnificent five-foot tall wedding cake, weighing 250 pounds.

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News

Going Places

November 14, 2015 Tim Purdy 1 Comment

Viewland, 1974. Photograph by and courtesy of D.B. Martin

The Smoke Creek country is one of my favorite haunts, introduced to me at an early age by my grandmother Margaret Purdy, a rockhound, among other things. When I worked out in the woods logging with my father, the desert was a nice escape from the trees. It is magical to me, since the lighting changes the character of the countryside, so in many ways, it always has a new feel to it. While it is fairly desolate these days, that was not the case a 100 years ago. I have several posts in the works about some unique historical aspects, since its history is largely ignored.

Finally, it has been ten weeks since the hip surgery and six weeks of weight bearing on my right leg, I am getting around, without a walker! However, with help from friends over the last few weeks, has allowed me to get out and about and take some photographs of historic sites to share in the near future.

Depending on weather, the long delayed Inspiration Tour may become a reality shortly.

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History

Susanville Ranch Park, Part II

November 13, 2015 Tim Purdy 1 Comment

The ranch as it appeared in 1922, when Fruit Growers owned it.

On October 30,1919, the Fruit Growers Supply Company purchased it from McKissick Cattle Company, for approximately $29,000. Fruit Growers anticipated using Bagwell Springs for a water supply and they would use the ranch land to provide winter pasture for the horses they used in logging. Fruit Growers constructed a water pipeline from the ranch to the mill, but it was never used due to litigation filed by other water right users. Fruit Growers briefly operated their own dairy there and, in 1923, leased it to the O’Kelly family who operated Lassen Dairy through the 1950s. In 1934, Fruit Growers offered to sell the ranch to the City of Susanville. Fruit Growers cited it would make an ideal golf course, that the money received from the golf course could be used to develop the remainder of the property into a park. The City liked the idea, but said no. In 1935, Fruit Growers sold the ranch to the Republic Electric Power Company who wanted to acquire Bagwell Springs as an additional water supply for Susanville. Over the years, that Company went through numerous reorganizations and became CP National. In 1984, CP National donated the ranch to Lassen County, and it is now a county park.

An interesting footnote to the story is that Lassen Community College examined the property for a future campus back in the 1960s, but the asking price was too expensive.

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History

Susanville Ranch Park, Part I

November 12, 2015 Tim Purdy Leave a comment

This is how the ranch appeared in the early 1900s when the Longs owned it.

In November 1855, Moses Mason claimed this property and became the second person to file a land claim in the Honey Lake Valley. On September 12, 1856, William Weatherlow located on Mason’s abandoned claim and lived there until his death in 1864. William B. Long purchased the property from Weatherlow’s Estate. In the early 1880s, James Bagwell located at the north end of the Susanville Ranch. In the mid-1870s, Abner and Margaret Van Buren settled on the western end of the property. By 1898, William B. Long’s son, John T., had not only purchased Van Buren’s and Bagwells’ properties, but that of his father. He consolidated these lands into one ranch. On June 2, 1913, Long, heavily in debt with his extensive ranch properties and a slaughterhouse in San Francisco, deeded this property to Alexander & Knoch, whom he owed $13,362.11. Alexander & Knoch, in turn, sold it to the McKissick Cattle Company.

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History

Bassett Hot Springs

November 11, 2015 Tim Purdy 3 Comments

In the late 1870s, Isaac Wilson Bassett developed the springs near Bieber, first by excavating a swimming hole where water was diverted because the springs were too hot. Later a bathhouse was constructed that contained wooden tubs. If the water became too cool, a wooden spigot could be turned into the tubs to add additional hot water so that optimum temperature was maintained in the pool. As Frances A. Gassaway recalled, “For twenty-five cents, one could go into the plunge and bathe. For a dime more one could be furnished a swimsuit. It was quite a treat to go to the springs.” In 1928, under Barney Fillingim’s management, the wooden pool was replaced with a concrete swimming pool. The Bassett family continued to operate the springs until 1945 when it was sold to Gerald and Birdie Packwood for $17,500. The Packwoods continued operations for a short period of time. Due to health regulations, maintenance, and insurance the Packwood’s deemed it too costly to operate and the facility was closed.

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History

Desert Homesteaders

November 10, 2015 Tim Purdy Leave a comment

This weathered sign of the NCO was updated to show that its headquarters had moved from Reno to Alturas. Photograph taken by Lassen County Librarian Lenala Martin at Wendel, 1920.

Amedee served as a hub for a number of reclamation projects that all held the belief that they were going to transform the eastern portion of the Honey Lake Valley into a garden oasis. These companies were persistent with their proposals. Initially, the optimism ran so high that the water from Eagle Lake would not be needed from the other reservoirs being constructed that its water could keep Honey Lake full for the Amedee Yacht Club. However after several decades reality set in and the region would remain a vast sagebrush plain.

In the early 1900s there were several other factors that seem to make the desert bloom. It was like a harmonic convergence where so many things came together at the same. Well-drilling had greatly improved, an extreme wet cycle in annual precipitation, the sugar beet industry, a second railroad and the Standish Water Company irrigation plant and canals. Stay tuned for further developments.

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History

Amedee

November 9, 2015 Tim Purdy 1 Comment

Amedee and Hayden Hill are two interesting Lassen County communities that no longer exist. Each one went through boom and bust cycles, for Amedee it was the railroads for Hayden Hill it was mining.

Amedee’s lifespan was brief. By 1892 its population was equal to that of Susanville. By the 1920s its population had dwindled to one or two, that being the caretakers of the McKissick Cattle Company who owned the majority of the town. The Nevada-California-Oregon Railroad that created the town, in certain aspect also killed the town. In between, however, with an agricultural boom and the Fernley & Lassen Railroad did briefly rejuvenate the community. In the near future, we will explore the many facets of Amedee.