Paul Bunyan Days at Willard Creek, April 1970. Featured is the log rolling contest-student still standing is Howard Hanns and the student falling is Marshall Benedict. Photograph courtesy of D.B. Martin
This topic is certainly a work in progress, after all it does take a lot of research time to put together these daily posts.
Lassen College’s forestry department began in 1938, though now its major emphasis is on fire science, than forestry. It was in this era of the late 1930s and early 1940s that the forestry students developed a small winter recreational area known as Willard Hill. For several decades it was a very popular spot for sledding, etc.
Back to the topic at hand, Paul Bunyan Days. Any one out there who can shed more light on this? If so, please contact me.
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In 1889, the Balls Canyon Reservoir Company employed surveyor, Frank Gates Ward (1857-1895), to survey a dam and reservoir site along Secret Creek where it enters the Honey Lake Valley. In 1889-90, the first reservoir was constructed. In February 1890, a flood washed out that dam. As one observer noted, the waters of Secret Creek began rising at a rate of two feet an hour and within three hours the 27 foot high structure, that measured 150 feet in length, was swept away. The company planned to rebuild but never did. In 1895, Edward T. Purser took over the project and a new reservoir was constructed, along with a twenty-mile ditch to his property near Wendel.
A most unusual phenomenon that can be found throughout the region and no longer just in Lassen County. The original shoe tree was located at Mud Flat, along Highway 395. In the 1930s, Jud Foster, of the California Highway Department, planted numerous cottonwood trees across Mud Flat. It was hoped that these trees would absorb and stabilize the roadbed so that it would not become so muddy. Only one tree survived and it grew to maturity. In 1979, when the highway was widened, officials considered removing the tree, but later reconsidered. Instead, the highway department made an impromptu turn out next to the tree. This turn out along a desolate stretch of road, where there are no trees, became a popular stop for travelers. Shortly thereafter, someone tossed a pair of shoes onto a tree limb. Slowly, through time, more and more shoes were found dangling from the tree. In the early hours of May 14, 1994, an unknown person(s) cut down the tree.
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In 1913, when the Red River Lumber Company was building its company town, the Great Western Power was in the midst constructing its Big Meadows dam to create nearby Lake Almanor. Great Western Power did have a resident physician, namely Dr. Fred J. Davis to provide medical care. Red River routinely sought his services. By the fall of 1913, Dr. Davis accepted employment with Red River and remained with the company until 1939 when he moved to Susanville and opened a private practice. Continue reading Westwood Hospital→
Depending upon the water level of Eagle Lake, it can be an island. The pelicans at the lake were a popular early day attraction, though others perceived them and the cormorants (sometimes referred to as shags) detrimental to the lake’s fishery. At sundry times the birds were slaughtered, their nests and eggs destroyed. A prime example is found in the columns of the Lassen Weekly Mail of June 11, 1892: “In Eagle Lake there are two islands (Pelican and Shag) on which large numbers of fowl, known as Pelican and Shag, build their nests and rear their young. The consequences are that vast numbers of fish from the lake are destroyed each year for food for the young birds. Recently a party visited these islands and killed the young birds and a good many of the old ones, hoping by means, if continued persistently for a number of years, to prevent the yearly destruction of the fish of the lake.”
Shag Island, 1916. D.M. Durst
P.S. Some may be interested in the May issue of the Northern California Traveler is my story about the Eagle Lake Bass.
The long delayed tour of Susanville’s first park is scheduled for Wednesday, May 18, so save the date!For those wishing to attend, please leave a comment below or contact me. Details about time, etc. will be emailed to the attendees. If there is enough interest, a second tour could be scheduled during the summer on a Saturday morning.
Yours truly conducting a preliminary tour at Inspiration Point, April 1, 2016. Photograph courtesy of Annie Henriques Blank
Inspiration Point provides a great vista to discuss the region’s natural history ranging from Lake Lahontan to the region’s earthquake past which had affects of mining on Diamond Mountain to the local stone quarry. Of course, let us not forget about the city park movement, though at one time back in the 1940s the city gave consideration to subdivide Inspiration Point for homesites.
The Red River Lumber Company was headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. With its westward expansion to California and the establishment of its company town there, required extensive communications back and forth. For a historian, it was wonderful due to the paper trail. What is truly amazing is how much has been preserved at the Minnesota Historical Society.
The various members of the Walker family, the owners of Red River, were prolific letter writers. Fletcher Walker, who was the resident manager at Westwood had to write in great detail about the conditions in California, since everything operated so differently than in Minnesota.
The letters, of course, also contained happenings around Westwood. Whether it was the political scene, or what their competitors were doing. With that in mind, I share a letter that Fletcher wrote to his father, T.B. Walker, exactly one hundred years to the date. You will note the letter is addressed to T.B. Walker in New York and not Minnesota. T.B. Walker then was spending a lot of time in New York wheeling and dealing as part of a re-finance bond sale for the Westwood operations.
The remnants of this dam straddle the California-Nevada border, and it is an impressive historical site. On May 25, 1889, William A. Clark filed a claim to all the water of Skedaddle Creek to irrigate the sagebrush lands of eastern Honey Lake Valley. To accomplish this, Clark proposed to dam the creek at the “narrows.” The dam would span the canyon some two hundred feet and be 126 feet in height. To fund the project, Clark formed the Honey Lake Water Company, and it was incorporated on June 17, 1889. It was estimated that the dam would cost $30,000. Construction of the dam began in October 1889, and it was anticipated that the dam would be complete by the following spring. In November, Company Engineer, Alexander Center, reported that construction had progressed better than expected and that the dam’s height would be raised an additional fourteen feet. It was during that month of November that one of the severest winters on record began. The November and December snows made work difficult and by January work came to a complete halt. Blizzards blanketed the countryside and then followed bitter cold temperatures that sent the thermometer to –30 degrees. Snowstorms continued and by the end of January it was estimated that on the higher slopes of Skedaddle, the snow depths surpassed ten feet! (Normal annual precipitation at the dam site is 7 inches a year, in 1889-90 it received 22 inches). Continue reading Skedaddle Dam→
Lassen’s Monument, 1905. Courtesy of Philip S. Hall
The other day, I wrote about Peter Lassen’s demise. Even though he died in April, his remains were not brought back and buried on the ranch he owned in the Honey Lake Valley until November. In my most recent book, with other contributing authors, Untold Stories, is an account about his burial place. Continue reading Lassen Monument Movement→
