The establishment of toll roads in the frontier West was difficult and not usually a feasible business venture—unless you were strategically located at a bridge, mountain pass or narrow canyon where possible toll users could not make a detour and thus not pay the toll fee. On several occasions toll road companies were formed for various routes through Lassen County, but were never successful enterprises.
In 1863, the Tehama County Board of Supervisors decided to construct operate and maintain a toll road from Red Bluff to Susanville. A convenient location for the toll gate was placed along the Susan River, five miles west of Susanville at Devil’s Corral. In August 1864, Aaron Seaman and Jerry Tyler acting as agents for Tehama County as toll collectors, sued John Packard and Archibald Boyd for a total of $41.25 in toll charges. The toll fees were three cents a head for cattle, twenty-five cents per horseman and fifty cents per wagon. However, the resourceful Honey Lake defendants were able to have the case dismissed. The date of their toll fees for use of the road was in August 1864. They cited that Tehama County could not collect toll fees outside their jurisdiction, since Devil’s Corral was in Lassen County, and this toll road soon folded.