While going through a photograph transfer file, in search of a particular photograph that I thought had been scanned, I came across this one of interest. By the way, for those inquiring minds, I never did find what I was looking for.
In the summer of 1981, gabions were installed along the north bank of Susan River just below the Carroll Street bridge to prevent further erosion of the bank. As one can easily see, there was not much water in the river to divert during the project.
Tim
Fruit Growers Supply Company had another issue besides the housing shortage when they opened their Susanville plant in 1921. Inflation had a been issue not just locally, but nationally. However, Susanville’s prices were higher than elsewhere. There were accusations that the local merchants were gouging consumers to take advantage of the tremendous population growth.
Fruit Growers employees complained. Did they ever. Fruit Growers even hired an undercover detective to investigate. It turned that yes, Susanville prices were high, but the local merchants were not gouging any one.
Fruit Growers solution, they opened a commissary. It ws nothing fancy and carried the necessary staple items. The commissary opened on December 12, 1920 and the discount store was only available to Fruit Growers employees. Local Fruit Growers manager, S.M. Bump wrote in a memo “Merchants can exploit all they want.”
Over the ensuing years the commissary evolved and would eventually be open to the public. Its name became Sunkist Grocery. While the store no longer longer exists, the building does. It is now the Lassen Senior Center at 1700 Sunkist, Susanville.
Tim
After years of speculation Lassen Peak finally erupted on May 30, 1914. As forest service ranger Harvey Abbey wrote in his diary, “Only one look and I could plainly see there was something going on at the top of the old mountain. We all were a little frightened. We did not what might follow the outburst. Much to my surprise there was what looked like black smoke and steam, ascending to a height of two or three hundred feet from the top of the mountain.”
For the next several days the eruptions continued with increased violence and duration. On Sunday, June 14, three eruptions occurred, one which sent an ashen plume of smoke some 2500 feet above the summit.
Lassen kept performing, with 110 eruptions recorded by the end of the year. One thing that observers and scientists alike found perplexing was the lack of lava of other incendiary evidence. That would all change with the great eruption of May 22, 1915.
With Labor Day Weekend approaching, some may have short attention spans. Thus, this 1976 photograph of Ravendale, basically depicts a wide spot in the road of Highway 395. Nothing to get excited about, but its here for posterity.
On the other hand, a view of Ravenalde, during better times.
Tim
Before there was the Great Depression of the 1930s, there was the 1893 Depression. The recovery from the latter was a slow process. Take for instance, the NCO Railroad remained stalled at Amedee for most of the 1890s. It was not until 1899 that the railroad finally began to extend its line northward to the Madeline Plains.
The utopian community of Standish floundered since its beginning in 1897. While company officials stated their goal was to take a slow course, that proved disastrous. In 1901, Associated Colonies the organizers/promoters of Standish went bankrupt.
On the surface in 1900-1901it looked like was Susanville booming. Four major brick buildings were constructed, but that was partially in response to recovery of a major fire in June 1900 that took a huge chunk of the town’s business district.
One area that looked promising were the proposed railroads. There was the Marysville- Susanville Railway, the Oregon Short Line to name two. While the so-called paper railroads never materialized, they did have surveyors in region, thus adding to speculations.
Tim
Back in 2017, I briefly wrote about this topic. This time around, I have a better photograph. For nearly a century there were water tanks located at the base of Inspiration Point, that served as the town’s water supply. For those not familiar, the water source is Cady Springs located some three miles west in the Susan River Canyon. One of the interesting features about these old tanks, and the above picture highlights, is the fact that there were no covers on the tanks and remained that way as late as the early 1970s. These tanks no longer exist, and all that remains is the cement foundations.
Tim
Earlier this month , the Sierra Theater closed its doors. Its future is uncertain. The Susanville Symphony Society would like to see it converted into a performing arts center. That group has a request before the City of Susanville to appropriate a portion of the unallocated American Rescue Plan Act funds. No decision has been made by City officials pending a review of the Society’s plans.
In 1934 the Liberty Theater was condemned as state inspectors deemed it unsafe. The building was demolished. T&D Enterprises owner of the facility announced a new theater would be built on the site of the old one, to be named Sierra Theater. Construction on the concrete re-inforced theater began in October, and the owners noted it was earthquake proof, the first of its kind in Susanville. On Friday, March 8, 1935 a grand opening was held for $75,000 theater. The first showing was appropriately a film named, “The Whole Town’s Talking.”
When I received this photograph from Tom Armstrong many years ago, I do not recall him providing any information. However, I could be wrong and it is buried deep in my NCO files I have a self imposed ban of examining. Another story, for another time.
After consulting with two individuals who are a lot more knowledgeable on NCO rolling stock and I hopefully relay their findings without error. Of course, if someone has more information or that I need to make a correction, please let me know.
The NCO purchased two Meister cars. They were converted into touring cars. Alas, while I have seen photographs, I do not possess any. The images are rather impressive. It is my understanding, and I could be wrong, the NCO acquired them around 1920. Information about them is sparse. If anyone can enlighten more on this topic, we would be glad to hear from you.
Tim
Many may not be aware that truck and railroad logging worked in tandem. Just like transition from horse logging to motorized tractors would take time, it was the same with trucks to be incorporated into logging operations. One of the benefits was trucks could access terrain to difficult for railroad operations. To get the most mileage for buck was the reload station. Trucks were used to log difficult terrain and then instead of driving all the way to mill, the destination was to the railroad’s reload station. The trucks were unloaded, then the logs reloaded onto railroad flat cars, thus an economical way to move volume of logs from the woods to the mill.
Each of these wars had major impacts, not just isolated to the timber industry.
The development of tractors in World War I was significant. The modifications of the Holt Best Tractors made way for Caterpillar to incorporate these innovations. Within a decade after World War I, tractors basically had replaced horses using Big Wheels.
In the 1930s witnessed the introduction of truck logging, albeit on a small scale. This was mainly done by small independent contractors, knowns as gyppos. The technology that made improvements for tractors, was now being done in World War II with large trucks to transport to move goods and logs was one of those commodities. .
In the end, eventually, truck logging became more efficient than a railroad logging train. It was a slow integration with reload stations. More about that tomorrow, from a blast from the past column.