California State Capital building, Sacramento, 1910
On this date in 1850, California became the thirty-first state to enter the union of the United States. Alas, it goes largely ignored. It used to be a state holiday, so schools, city, county and state offices were closed in observance. Today, that is no longer the case. In the late 1970s or possibly 1980 there was a holiday switcheroo. Labor organizations lobbied and instead of having a paid holiday on Admission Day, they traded that date for the day after Thanksgiving. So a piece of trivia history, that depending on one’s age knew this, but if you are the younger set, now you know.
The mighty Ponderosa Pine where Peter Lassen was finally laid to rest was no longer to be. By the late 1940s, the estimated 600 year old tree was slowly dying. By the late 1950s, the tree was dead. It was deemed a potential hazard to visitors and the monuments. On Sunday, September 10, 1961 three timber fallers—Lloyd Eoff, Preston Franklin and Orien Worley—were delegated to fall the tree. The164 foot tall tree measured nine feet in diameter and 27.3 feet in circumference at the butt. At the time, it was believed to the oldest and largest Ponderosa Pine in the United States. A section of the tree was shipped to the University of Arizona to be studied. Another section of tree was placed next to the museum in Susanville.
Today, Saturday September 7, 2024 there will be a celebration of life for Charles “Chuck” Dickens in Washington. While I am unable to attend, I will be thinking of him. Chuck left a lasting legacy to Lassen Union High School where he graduated in 1950. Some of his surviving classmates are Verna (Fraley) Wemple and Bernice (Taylor) Hagata.
I met Chuck at the Lassen Alumni picnic in 2005. We shared a common goal–we wanted to do something special for the centennial Lassen High graduating Class of 2007. A plan was hatched. We would locate and digitize every yearbook dating back to 1904. The Class of 2007 would receive the final product on a DVD
It was a daunting task, since the high school never kept a set. My main task was to locate them, wherein Chuck did the “heavy lifting” of scanning. In the Acknowledgements we thanked those who shared their yearbooks. There was a subset group that really never received the praise they deserved. For Chuck it was truly a family affair, with many members assisting. For me, it was friends who gave me the helping hand when I needed it most.
While the Southern Pacific no longer exists, it is not forgotten. The Southern Pacific Historical & Technological Society carries on to preserve its history. This year the organization will hold its convention in a railroad community the Southern Pacific made–Sparks, Nevada. It will be held from October 16-19. To learn more about the event and the registration form you can find the information here.
Yours truly was invited to be a guest speaker, a tremendous honor. Alas, I had to decline. I had the dilemma of scheduling an earlier presentation of the local Native Daughters of the Golden West. The latter, after nearly nine months since I received their request will occur on California’s Admission Day (September 9).
It was in September 1924 when the Lassen National Forest announced that they had subdivided summer home sites at Silver Lake in far western Lassen County and the headwaters of Susan River. The Lassen Mail newspaper reported on September 5, 1924: “Forest Service Offers Homes on Silver Lake. The United States Forest Service has laid out a number of lots on Silver Lake which will be offered for lease to people who wish to establish a summer camp or home. The forest service is building a good road to the lake which will make it easily accessible.” Susanville’s other newspaper, the Lassen Advocate never published any account on the topic.
Information on the early day cabins is sketchy due to the fact since the lease records were filed with the forest service. The Lassen Mail of June 28, 1929 reports, “New Cottages at Silver Lake. Marble Burch, owner of the resort at Silver Lake was in Susanville the first of the week purchasing supplies and making preparaions for the opening season. He is superintending the erection of two new cottages at the lake for Chico residents.”
The infamous Peter Lassen, a name well known throughout Northern California
It was interesting question posed shortly after Peter Lassen and Edward Clapper’s death on the morning of April 29, 1859 in the Black Rock Desert. Their prospecting companion, Lemircus Wyatt escaped riding a horse without a saddle or reins some 120 miles back to Susanville to relay the news.
A little background. In late April 1859 a prospecting party from the Honey Lake Valley set off for the Black Rock Desert. The first group consisted of William Weatherlow, Joseph Kitts, George Lathrop and a man named Jameson. The second group consisted of Peter Lassen, Edward Clapper and Lemircus Wyatt. They agreed to rendezvous at Black Rock Springs, which did not happen according to plan, though the two parties were in close proximity of each other.
When Wyatt relayed the news in Susanville, a posse of twenty men was formed to bury Clapper and Lassen. The posse found the encampment and noticed something odd–it had not been disturbed. Among the items they found were two sacks of flour, some dried beef, blankets and part of a keg of whiskey.
Weatherlow’s headstone, 1978
During this same time period the U.S. Government appointed Major Frederick Dodge, the first U.S. Indian Agent for the West to oversee the welfare and future reservations for Paiute and Washo tribes. Dodge consulted with Paiute Chief Winnemucca. The Honey Lakers had a peace treaty with the Paiutes, and there had not been any problems. Winnemucca informed Dodge that the Paiutes had nothing to do with Lassen’s death.
In May 1859, Major Dodge had his findings of Lassen’s death published in the Sacramento Union newspaper. It was Dodge’s opinion, especially that the Lassen camp was not ransacked by Indians, concluded the dastardly deed was done by four white men, i.e. Weatherlow and Company.
Clapper Canyon/Creek, Black Rock Desert. Courtesy of D. Dickerson
In a strange turn of events, Weatherlow waited a year to deny Dodge’s allegations. In his statement Weatherlow asked Dodge to make public retraction, though it does not appear Dodge did. By the 1880s there was still some of a certain mindset that Lassen was not killed by the Indians. In 1917, when a second Lassen Monument was dedicated, the issue was still being debated. It should be noted that the two Lassen Monuments have carved in stone “killed by Indians”.
Wyatt, who was the only eye-witness died two years later in Susanville at the age of sixty-two. Weatherlow died in 1864. Kitts, Lathrop and Jameson eventually left the region to parts unknown.
Yours truly at the Courthouse Centennial Cemetery Tour, September 16, 2017. Photograph by Susan Tangeman
It is Labor Day. Yours truly has been working very laborious this year learning new technology. Not an easy task, but I am getting there. I have that slow learner disorder with new devices.
This year I have had an unusual amount of research request. The inquirers all seem to share a familiar trait. By the time I respond, I receive a reply back, that they found everything on the internet. Truth be known, in a lot of those cases, the documents that I have in those particular files are not available on the internet. An example is correspondence with their long lost relatives. That is their loss, not mine. While there is a wealth information to be found online (some of which is questionable) and there is a wealth of material that is not. I will continue to do the hard work of hands on the ground, examining original documents versus questionable online sources, so I guess that makes me a relic of the past.
In the meantime, enjoy this special holiday. I am going to toil away for a part of the day working on the 2025 Calendars.
To see an actual jackalope in the wild, is rare–like spotting Big Foot. Yet, evidence of their existence during the 1950s through 1980s could be found at any roadhouse, i.e. bar/restaurant gas station such as the original Hallelujah Junction. However, those establishments are a vanishing breed, too.
The Jackalope, for those not familiar with the species is a cross between a jack rabbit and antelope. In the 1930s, Douglas Herrick of Wyoming is attributed to be the first to discover the mythological creature. Herrick, as an amateur taxidermist, made the first mounting. In time, others did too, but used small deer horns instead. Over the next few decades the appearance of the mounted Jackalope was widespread in the Intermountain West.
This small man-made lake is located approximately two miles east of the Eagle Lake Summit. In the late 1940s, the Paul Bunyan Lumber Company began logging operations in the region including Gallatin Peak and Round Valley. One of the company’s employees, Jim Coleman constructed a small dam on Piute Creek, near its headwaters. The small lake supplied the water used to wet down the logging roads, controlling the dust. It should be noted some maps have it spelled as Colman Lake.
It was a daunting task, since the high school never kept a set. My main task was to locate them, wherein Chuck did the “heavy lifting” of scanning. In the Acknowledgements we thanked those who shared their yearbooks. There was a subset group that really never received the praise they deserved. For Chuck it was truly a family affair, with many members assisting. For me, it was friends who gave me the helping hand when I needed it most.
