Note: The following article is the earliest known published account of the Belfast petroglyphs. There is interest among readers about this topic that I think many will enjoy.

Lassen Advocate, January 5, 1917 – Visited “Lookout Rock” Mr. and Mrs. F.P. Cady, Miss Miriam Colcord, County Librarian and Mr. Bates manager of Indian affairs as their guests, recently motored out to Belfast and spent a delightful day picnicking and examining the Indian hieroglyphics. The date was December 17 and the day was beautiful. It was ‘A Perfect Day,” as balmy as thought it was spring., so warm in fact, that of the gentlemen of the party found greater comfort with coats removed while enjoying lunch under a tree and exploring the interesting relics.

“These strange markings of hieroglyphics are found carved in rock, some of them painted, evidently with the same pigment, which has stood for ages on similar work in other parts of the world. After examine the markings, Mr. Bates stated that in New Mexico and Arizona he had seen what seemed to be same thing.  The place seemed to have been in ancient times a lookout or information station and has variously named by those as Lookout rock, and Council rock.

“The oldest Indians in this section have been questioned in regard to this place and the hieroglyphics, and it appears that nothing in their most ancient traditions of this tribe gives reference to them. Which leaves the inference that the time at which this work was done antedates any record of white people or any Indian tradition. In character these hieroglyphics are made up of circles and straight lines with very. little variation of that shape, but seem to have come down through the ages unchanged and unchangeable. The rocks bearing the markings are to size of boulders and therefore probably safe from curio hunters. It is doubtful if very many in this section are aware of the proximity of this extremely interesting spot, which doubtless will in time become one of the points of interest here.”

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The 22,000 acre fire was caused by an unattended campfire on August 26, 1926.

Tim

This concludes the weekly post about Lassen College’s Centennial history. However, the College’s  Willard Hill Ski area will appear near the end of November.

The following account is by Neil Wemple, who graduated from Lassen Junior College in 1938:  “The story of the camel as mascot for Lassen Junior College is a bit unlikely and interesting and its goes like this. I had thought the selection of the camel had been the work of some of the “old grads” back in the late twenties. Someone had told me this, but it was not so. So I was determined that it was so and when I came upon the truth I could scarcely believe the results of my own research efforts. I wrote many letters, made many phone calls, studied many LUHS and LJC publications and was very embarrassed to discover that the evolution and adoption of the camel came about in my first year at Lassen Junior College in 1937! The advice and efforts of Bud and Don Cady, Adelene and Abe Jensen and my sister Deese Theodore lead me to Frank Rice and Phil Hall, former Lassen Junior College Forestry students who knew the answer. I was finally able to find some old publications which made the first mention of the camel in March of 1938. Frank Rice states that the camel began in 1937, and I know when I entered Lassen Junior College in the 1936-37 year we were called the camels. Continue reading Lassen College’s 1st Mascot →

This is a complicated tale., just like the geological history of Eagle Lake. Noted anthropologist Dr. Alfred Kroeber assigned Eagle Lake to the Atsugewi tribe. While Maidu elders such Roxie Peconum (1851-1958) indicated that Eagle Lake was part of its summer territory. On other hand, William Evans in his extensive research of the Honey Lake Maidu noted that there was a lack specific references to the lake. To complicate things, the Paiutes were the victims of the Papoose Meadows Massacre of 1866.

Of course, there are the rock circles can be found near Pine Creek, and those near the original Eagle Lake tunnel. However, of the three tribes mentioned,, none has claimed them. Can these ruins be associated with lake’s petroglyphs?

Tim