I had hoped by now to have completed the tale of M.O. Folsom, a rancher turned capitalist. His story has been a challenging. While the Folsom name is not well known by many today, Folsom played a key role in Susanville’s development. Here is a bit a trivia, to go along, for many decades Hobo Camp on Susanville was known as Folsom Park and he also owned what is known as Memorial Park.

In October 1917, M.O. Folsom met Charles McGowan, R.D.Baker and C.E. Cotton. The men had inspected a timber sale proposed by the Lassen National Forest in the vicinity of Peg-Leg Mountain some twenty miles north and west of Susanville. They contacted Folsom for possible mill site. Folsom had rallied the Susanville business community A committee was formed, after was at stake was a sawmill and box factory that would initially employ 250 men. The community proposed to offer a 40-acre tract with water rights adjacent to the railroad and east of the Susanville depot,  along with a  $8,000 cash bonus. McGowan and Company accepted and they named their new enterprise the Lassen Lumber & Company.

In 1919, James McNeen a Colorado lumberman contacted Folsom to assist a sawmill site west of Susanville. Folsom presented a site west of Devil’s Corral, along the railroad, and opposite the Bunnell Ranch. A deal was reached and McNeed built a sawmill with  average daily output of 30,000 board feet of lumber.  In that same year, Folsom was a member of Susanville’s Citizen Committee, and they secured Fruit Growers Supply Company to build its mill north of the railroad from tracks from Lassen Lumber.

Folsom had influence with the Red River Lumber Company. In 1892, Folsom’s father, Orman, had purchased Clear Creek from Hank Lands for an undisclosed amount. In 1909, M.O. Folsom sold it to Red River’s founder, T.B. Walker, for $6,500. At the same time, Walker acquired some 7,000 acres at Mountain Meadows, the remnants of the Goodrich Estate. Those acquisitions would result in Red River’s to establish their company town of Westwood.

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Last Saturday, I wrote about how Doyle evolved. At the conclusion I included a photograph one of the town’s landmark building now known as Winje’s, but for decades was known as Dixon’s. Some time around the late 1970s or early 1980s Winje’s purchased the building from Mary Dixon. Some time around 2021, Winje’s closed its doors. May be a reader might have some knowledge .

Whenever my Dad, was in Doyle he would  stop by to see June Dixon. They would swap stories about prospecting on Fort Sage Mountain. In 1910, Orlando McNabb did extensive traipsing on Fort Sage looking for gold. From there on, it has attracted prospectors.

Tim

The Lassen County business community courted the military over the years. During World War I attempts were made to establish a military training camp at Hackstaff, while that failed that location was not forgotten. In 1926, the Lake Denmark Naval Ammunition Depot in New Jersey was destroyed, the cause of a lightning strike. Twenty-one people were killed, and the damage in today’s dollars about a billion.

This changed everything when the government sought a location for a munitions depot in the west.  The two important criteria was it to be an isolated location, but have railroad access.  The top three sites examined were in the western Great Basin, and two were in close proximity of each other–Secret Valley, Flanigan and Hawthorne.  In 1928, Hawthorne, Nevada was the victor. When World War II came along, saw the need for another Army Depot, and they selected Hackstaff in the Honey Lake Valley and it was subsequently renamed Herlong, after the first Ordnance officer killed in World War I.

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Secret Creek is a small desert stream of approximately forty miles that originates from Shinn Peaks in eastern Lassen County.  While spring run-off of snow melt from Shinn Peaks at times can be substanial, it is the  numerous springs of the upper watershed that sustain the creek. When the stream departs Secret Valley, it enters Balls Canyon and near Belfast empties into Willow Creek.

In 1889, a diversion of the creek was built after it leaves Balls Canyon. The sole purpose was to collect spring run-off to store at Ward Lakes Reservoir, for irrigation. There were actually two reservoirs, hence the plural of its name. The upper reservoir was significally smaller..

In 1889, the Balls Canyon Reservoir Company was formed to build a dam on Secret Creek where it enters the Honey Lake Valley, about five miles west of Litchfield. The company employed surveyor, Frank Gates Ward (1857-1895), to survey a dam and reservoir site.  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.

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By the spring 1892, the Amedee Boomtown was in its full glory. In the fall of 1891, Erasmus Gest invited investors and speculators  to Amedee to promote and a develop the town. On March 30, 1892, the Truckee Republican had story about Amedee.  It stated: “These conditions are needed for a desert boomtown- 1) A live man 2) A railroad and 3) Water.”

1) On January 9, 1892, S.N. Griffith a Fresno, California capitalist entered to an agreement with Erasmus Gest to develop and promote   Amedee. The contract contained specific requirements for Griffith to undertake. Griffith agreed to construct a hotel, bath house and livery stable from plans submitted by Gest. A townsite needed to be plotted and surveyed and the  contract even designated A.J. Chalmers as the surveyor for the work. The necessary projects had a deadline of six months. Gest was under no obligations or responsebility for this promotional venture. The boomtown began.

2) A railroad. The NCO Railroad arrived ion November 1890 on the east side of Honey Lake.

3) Water. There were several reclamation projects in the works. The Eagle Lake Land & Irrigation Company focused on the Amedee region. In fact Eagle Lake water flowed to Amedee in the fall of 1892.

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Business cards in this electronic age are becoming obsolete. Over a century there was a standard size card. However, there were individuals that were creative types who did not follow standard norms. Such was the case of Susanville businessman Ben Zimmerman. His card was twice size of a normal one, and not only that it was printed on both sides.

Zimmerman came to Susanville in 1874, at the age of 14. The first trade he learned was making harnesses. The next thing, he has graduated to saloon operator. This he soon discovered was a very lucrative business. All was well, until 1919 and the Volstead Act, better known as prohibition put an end to his business and so he opened a restaurant. Zimmerman died in 1943 in Susanville.  

Tim