USA > California > Lassen County > Fairfield's pioneer history of Lassen County, California; containing everything that can be learned about it from the beginning of the world to the year of Our Lord 1870 Also much of the pioneer history of the state of Nevada the biographies of Governor Isaac N. Roop and Peter Lassen and many stories of Indian warfare never before published > Part 2
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A glance at the map will show Lassen county's location in California, and that it is bounded on the east by Nevada. It will also show that it lies east of the Sierra Nevada mountains and is a part of the Great Basin, that elevated, semi-arid country lying between the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains on the west and the Rocky mountains on the east. Big valley, Ash valley, and Mountain Meadows are drained by tributaries of the Sacramento river, but their characteristics are the same as the rest of the county.
Its surface is very rugged, probably two-thirds of it consisting of hills and mountains, the highest peaks of the latter rising to an altitude of from 6500 to 8400 feet. Its western part is covered with heavy timber; and the east line of this heavily timbered belt, beginning at the southern end of the county, runs up the western side of Long valley, along the southern and western sides of Honey Lake valley, and then to the southern end of Eagle Lake. From there it extends in a northwesterly direc- tion to Dixie valley, thence to the south side of Big valley, and around the southern and western sides of it to the Modoc county line. There are a few small bodies of good timber east of this; but, as a rule, where there is any timber, it is juniper or scrubby pine.
Excepting Pit river and its tributaries and a few mountain creeks that help to form the headwaters of Feather river, the streams of the county, all of which are small, flow into lakes, or sinks, which have no outlets.
The valleys of the county are Honey Lake, Madeline Plains, Big valley, Long valley, Willow Creek, Ash valley, Secret, Horse Lake, Dixie, Mountain Meadows, Red Rock, Grasshopper, and Dry valleys. The altitude of these valleys ranges from about 4000 feet to 5300 or 5400 feet. Their climate is temperate with a touch of the semi-tropical, for there is a wet season and a dry one. The moisture and temperature depend, however, on the elevation and the proximity to the Sierra Nevada mountains; but the heat, cold, and the amount of rain and snow are very variable, sometimes the dry season being very wet and the wet
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DESCRIPTION OF LASSEN COUNTY
one very dry. Occasionally there is a year when there are slight snow falls through March and a part of April, and once in a great while snow falls to a considerable depth late in the spring, but it does not stay very long. As a rule, the crops are raised by irrigation, and the grains, fruits, and vegetables of the temperate zone are produced. A great deal of hay is raised, and stock raising is one of the principal industries of the county. Though politically in California, Lassen county, in every other respect, is a part of Nevada.
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THE HISTORY OF LASSEN COUNTY
CHAPTER I THE YEARS 1848 TO 1856
T HERE is nothing to show when the first white man, or men, set foot within the limits of this county. In the fall of 1848 a small train of immigrants under the leadership of Peter Lassen went the entire length of the western part of it. It is reasonable to believe, though, that wandering bands of hunters and trappers had passed through here before that time.
THE LASSEN TRAIL
The writer believes that the following description of the orig- inal Lassen Trail is the most correct one in existence.
The "Hesperian Magazinc" of August, 1859, Bancroft's His- tory, and "Fifty Years of Masonry in California" say that Lassen went east across the plains with Commodore Stockton in 1847, and the following spring started from Missouri with a train of twelve wagons. These immigrants were to settle on his grant at the mouth of Deer Creek, in the southeastern part of what is now Tehama county, California. (For a full account of the life of Lassen, see the year 1859 in this book.)
At that time the emigrant road ran up the Platte and Sweet- water rivers, through the South Pass, and on to Fort Hall, which was near the Snake river and almost due north of Salt Lake City. The road to California ran southwest from Fort Hall to the headwaters of the Humboldt river, and then followed down that stream to its sink. Lassen came this road until he reached the Big Bend of the Humboldt river, and there he turned into the Applegate road which went into southern Oregon.
Bancroft says that in June, 1846, "Levi Scott, Jesse Apple- gate, Lindsey Applegate, John Scott, Moses Harris, Henry Bogus, John Owens, John Jones, Robert Smith, Samuel Goodhue, Bennett Osborne, William Sportsman, William Parker, Benj. Burch, and David Goff" started from Polk county, Oregon, to find a route from there through the Cascade mountains, and out to the regular emigrant road to California. They succeeded in finding a road out to the Humboldt river, and went on to Fort Hall to meet the coming immigration. Bancroft says that there they got ninety or a hundred wagons to go with them instead of taking the northern route, and these they conducted into Oregon by the new road. F. and S. (hereafter the "History
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HISTORY OF LASSEN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
of Plumas, Lassen, and Sierra Counties" will be referred to in this way) say there were forty-two wagons and one hundred and fifty people. At the Big Bend of the Humboldt river, near what was afterwards called Lassen's Meadows, they left the river and went west to Antelope springs, and then to Rabbit Hole springs. After going a little farther west, they went northwest across the desert to the Big Hot spring west of Black Rock mountain, which is at the southern extremity of the Black Rock range. They kept along the western side of this range up to Mud Meadows, and then turned west into High Rock canyon. They went up through this canyon, and on to a point about two and a half miles south of the Massacre Lakes; and turning to the southwest, went across to the 49 canyon, and down that into Surprise valley. Crossing the valley between the two upper lakes, they kept up the west side to the Fandango Pass, for many years called Lassen's Pass, and there went over into Goose Lake valley. They kept down the east side of Goose lake until they reached a narrow place in it, south of west of the Sugar Loaf. All the way down the lake they had kept close to the edge of it; and here, near the northwest corner of Section II, Township 45 north, Range 13 east, they crossed the lake, going a little west of north. It is said that the old road can still be seen where it goes into the water on each side of the lake. The Oregon road then turned to the northwest and went around the north end of Clear and Tule lakes.
Lassen followed the Applegate road until he reached the lower end of Goose lake, and here the Lassen Trail really begins. One old road turned off on the west side of the lake and ran almost south, crossing the Devil's Garden, and striking Pit river near the mouth of Rattlesnake creek. A. Delano, who went over the road in 1849, and in 1857 published a book entitled "Life on the Plains and Among the Diggings," says he never crossed the bed of the lake, but went right on down the river. Without doubt, both roads were used. The writer has never been able to learn how far north of the Applegate road the water was at that time. Lassen kept down on the north side of the river and crossed it near the mouth of the canyon below what is now called Canby. He then went over into Stone Coal valley and down that to the river, and again followed down the river, being obliged to cross it frequently and sometimes to go along the sides of the
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THE YEARS 1848 TO 1856
hills above it. About ten miles above where Lookout now stands he crossed the river for the last time, going over to the east side of it, and then went down through Big valley, then called Round valley, keeping close to the river and passing through the present site of Bieber. As early as 1849 a road ran from the upper end of the valley north to the Applegate road. They left the valley at the Thompson place, where George Thompson and his family settled in the spring of 1872, and climbed the hill to the plateau above the river. They then went on almost south, keeping about a mile from the river until it turned west, over to Clark's valley and then on the same course to the west end of Little Dixie valley.
From all that can be learned, it seems that the original trail went from Little Dixie about eight miles south of west to Beaver creek. There it turned and ran a little east of south to the west end of Poison lake, and then to Pine creek at the place where the road from Susanville to Dixie valley and that part of the country now crosses it. A little later on another road was made, which ran from the west end of Little Dixie to its southeast cor- ner, just touched Big Dixie, and ran about three miles farther to the southeast. Then it turned southwest, passed along the west side of Shroder lake, and kept on that course until it met the other road at the southwest corner of Poison lake.
From Pine creek Lassen went a few miles southeast, turned south, passed Feather lake, crossed Susan river just west of Norvall Flat, passed west of Duck lake, and crossed Clear creek about a hundred yards above where the road crossed it in 1910, or before Westwood was built. He then went on to the Big spring in the north arm of Big Meadows, and kept on south until he got north of where the original Prattville stood. Then turning to the southwest, he crossed the river about a mile above that place, and kept on that course about seven miles farther until he struck the north fork of Butt creek. He followed up Butt creek northwest to its head in Soldier Meadows, through these meadows (this is the Deer creek pass) to Lost creek, and down that to Deer creek. Delano says the trail followed down this stream eight miles to the last crossing, and two miles below that left the creek. After going about fourteen miles, they reached the top of the ridge between Deer creek and Mill creek; and they followed down the summit of this ridge for twenty miles. He also says "Eight miles from the foot-hills was the
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HISTORY OF LASSEN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
house of Col. Davis, where the Lawson Trail first struck Deer creek. About a mile below this was Lawson's on the opposite side of the creek. At Lawson's were two or three small adobe buildings, one of which was by courtesy called a store, having a little flour, whiskey, and groceries for sale. Flour was $50 a hundred, beef 35 cents, pork 75 cents, sugar 50 cents, and cheese $1.50 per pound." (Lassen's buildings were on the south side of Deer creek and perhaps a mile and a half from the mouth of it. In early days Lassen's name was pronounced "Lawson" and sometimes spelled that way. The early settlers pronounced the name of the county "Lawson." Men who were well acquainted with Lassen say that he pronounced his name "Lassen," the Danes of today say it is "Lassen," so it seems that the pro- nunciation of this county's name, like its weather, must be guessed at .- F.)
The Lassen Trail was a "holy terror," so to speak. See on the map the distance from the Black Rock mountain to Clear creek by the road through Honey Lake valley, and see where Lassen took his train to get there. It took Delano two days over a month to go from the Humboldt river to Lassen's ranch. After the experience of the 1849 immigrants it was called the "Death Route" and "Lassen's Horn Route," probably because it was about as much of a cutoff as going around Cape Horn would have been. A great immigration went over this road in 1849; some of them going this way because they were afraid of the forty miles of sandy desert between the Humboldt sink and Rag- town on the Carson river. From Lassen's Meadows to Rabbit Hole springs is something like thirty miles, and Antelope springs are about half way between them. At this time none of these springs had been opened up, and afforded very little water, and there was no feed worth speaking of at either place. It was nearly thirty miles across the desert to the Big Hot spring west of the Black Rock mountain, and five miles beyond that they found the first good grass since leaving the Humboldt river. They had jumped from the frying pan into the fire, and their troubles had only begun. At the hot springs in this vicinity a great many wagons were abandoned, and traces of them can still be seen here, and in the High Rock canyon, too. In fact, wagons, etc., were left all along the road. Their teams gave out or died, or were stolen by the Indians; and they had to leave their
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THE YEARS 1848 TO 1856
wagons, and go on the best they could. Some cut their wagons in two, and made carts out of parts of them; and on these they hauled their families and what little else they could.
Going from the Hot springs up to Mud Meadows they had a long stretch of sandy desert, and Delano says they let their wagons down into the High Rock canyon with ropes. From Surprise valley up through Fandango, or Lassen's, pass, the mountain looks a person in the face, and one would hardly want to go over the old road with a pack train. Probably it was rough traveling from Hot Spring valley to Big valley, although not so bad as in many other places. They say it makes a person's hair stand up to see where they came down into Horse creek at Little Dixie valley, and the marks on the trees show that they let their wagons down with ropes there, too. Because it was a very dry time, they went across Big Meadows without any trouble; the swamps being almost, or entirely, dry that year. Delano says they cut hay in Big Meadows and carried it along to feed their teams on the fifty miles of mountain desert to be traveled over after leaving there, and that twenty miles of the road between the last crossing of Deer creek and the Sacramento valley was on the top of a ridge. Sometimes the top of this ridge was fifty rods wide, and in other places it was just wide enough for the road; and sometimes it was hundreds of feet almost straight down from the top of the ridge. To make matters worse, this ridge was crossed occasionally by ravines which made hard, rocky, sideling hills to go down and up. William Fish, who knows that country well, says there are two places called "The Narrows," where at each place, for perhaps two hundred feet, it was hard work to drive along with a wagon without tipping over. He says there was water at different places near the summit; but probably the immigrants did not find it, and went a long ways down into the canyon after it. After leaving the ridge the ground sloped gradually into the valley. Live oaks grew along here, and the immigrants cut a good many of them down for their stock to browse on.
It looks as though Lassen didn't know where he was going. They used to say that when he got to Goose lake, he saw Mt. Shasta one day and Lassen's Butte the next. He didn't know the difference, and traveled one day toward one of them and the next day toward the other. It is also told that out in the Pine
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HISTORY OF LASSEN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
creek country he got lost, and the men in his train threatened to hang him. He told them that if they would let him go to the top of the mountain near by, he could find the way. They let him go, and from the mountain he was able to get on the right course again. The writer will not vouch for the truthfulness of either story, but he has heard both of them told a good many times. F. and S. say that Lassen led his train along safely until it reached Mt. Meadows, or Big Meadows; and there their pro- visions and animals both gave out, and they had to stop. This was about the first of November. The news of the discovery of gold did not reach Oregon until the last of August. Immedi- ately twenty wagons set out for California, and there being no other road, they followed the Applegate road out to Goose lake, and there took the trail Lassen's train had made a few weeks before. When they overtook Lassen, they helped him finish his journey.
The following quotations tell the history of those who went over the Lassen Trail after 1848. F. and S. say : "The experi- ence of Lassen's party in 1848 was repeated the next year, when a large emigration came over that route, and became snowed in and out of provisions on the headwaters of Feather river. When word of their precarious situation reached the valley, the people of San Francisco, Stockton, and Sacramento, who remembered the sad fate of the Donner party, made a great effort in their behalf. Their condition was reported to Gen. Percifer F. Smith, who, with the consent of Gen. Bennett Riley, the military gov- ernor, placed one hundred thousand dollars in the hands of Major Rucker, U. S. Quartermaster, to purchase animals and supplies for their relief. The military authorities were the more moved to this act of humanity because Gen. Wilson, U. S. Indian Agent, was among the sufferers. John H. Peoples, who was afterwards drowned in one of the Trinidad expeditions, was selected to lead the relief party. About the first of October Mr. Peoples started with twenty-four pack-animals, three wagons, and fifty-six beef-cattle, having twenty-five men in his party. He found the emigrants in the snow on Pit river, out of food, and suffering with the scurvy. On the first of December he brought in fifty families to Lassen's ranch, including Gen. Wil- son's, the last thirty miles being traversed through a blinding
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THE YEARS 1848 TO 1856
snow-storm. The majority of the emigrants settled in the head of Sacramento valley, or went to the Trinity mines in the early spring."
A. Delano has this to say: "Those who left Missouri late in the season (1849) and could not arrive until November experi- enced incredible hardships. The previous trains had eaten up all the grass and thousands of cattle perished. Worn out with fatigue and weak for want of nourishment they arrived late in the season in the mountainous region of the Sierras. The snow and rain commenced much earlier than usual and fell to an unprecedented depth, and it seemed utterly impossible for them to get through. Many suffered from scurvy and fevers from using salt and impure provisions. Reports of these sufferings reached the settlements, and the government and individuals contributed largely, and sent out a detachment to afford all the relief they could, and bring the suffering emigrants in. The last of the emigrants on the Lassen route had reached the Feather river when the government train reached them with mules. Some had been without food for two or three days, and with others a heavy body of snow lay on the ground. Three men made a desperate effort to get through. For some days they had been on an allowance of but one meal a day, but baking up all the bread they had left, which was only a supply for two days, they started for Lawson's, a distance of seventy miles. The snow was between two and three feet deep yet they waded through it for a few miles, and came to a wagon containing two women and two or three children who had eaten nothing for three days. They gave all they had in the way of food to them and went on. They succeeded in reaching Lawson's. Many knocked their animals in the head and lived on the meat until the government train arrived. Strong men fell down exhausted, and women waded through the deep snow carrying their helpless children. The only food they had was their animals, and men became so famished that they cut meat from horses and mules which had perished from hunger and thirst by the road-side. When the government train arrived the women and children were placed on the mules, exposed to a furious snow-storm in which many of the animals perished; but the emigrants finally succeeded in getting through, when the government furnished them with boats to carry them to Sacramento as the roads along the valley had become impassable."
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HISTORY OF LASSEN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
Bayard Taylor in "Eldorado or Adventures in the Path of Empire," says: "Public meetings were held in San Francisco by the citizens to contribute means of relief. Major Rucker took the expedition over the Lassen road himself. He found a large body of emigrants scattered along Pit river, many without pro- visions and others without animals, the Indians having stolen them. There were so many who needed his assistance that he had to come back to the ranches on Deer creek for more supplies, and leaving Mr. Peoples to hurry them up. They were very apathetic about trying to move rapidly. At the first part of the journey they threw away supplies that they needed; and now they hung onto useless goods and refused to lighten the loads of their teams. While they were crossing the mountains to Deer creek a violent storm came on, and Mr. Peoples made them leave their wagons and hurry forward with the remaining ani- mals. They finally got into Sacramento valley with the loss of many wagons and animals. Major Rucker went at once to Deer creek and saw that they were favorably established for the winter. They built log houses; and the government gave them flour from its stores and bought cattle from the neighboring ranches, and this furnished them with food for the winter."
Delano also says: "But a small portion of the emigration of 1850 came by the Lawson, or northern, route. The character of this route was now generally understood, and but few attempted it, fortunately. Those who did, almost without excep- tion, suffered severely. The Indians on Pit river were very hostile. In one night they stole twenty-seven mules from one train, which so completely broke it up that the emigrants were compelled to leave their wagons and pack what they could on the few mules they had left, leaving their wagons and goods to be plundered by the Indians."
After 1850 little or no emigration went over the Lassen Trail. A great deal of the road, though, has been used ever since; but of course it has been worked and improved. In many places, through deep canyons and mountain passes, the remaining traces show the difficulties encountered by those who first used it. Relics of the emigrant days, such as chains and irons where abandoned wagons were burned, and goods buried because they could be carried no farther, are even now occasionally found.
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THE YEARS 1848 TO 1856
THE BECKWOURTH PASS ROAD
In the spring of 1851 James P. Beckwourth, the old "moun- tain man," or trapper, discovered the pass which bears his name," although it is misspelled; and that fall conducted an emigrant train of seventeen wagons from the Truckee river through it to American valley, and then on to Marysville. This road entered the limits of Lassen county about a mile and a half from its southeastern corner, ran north down Long valley creek to the pass, and then went through it into Sierra valley. This road was much used during the emigration to California, and has been used ever since.
DESCRIPTION OF HONEY LAKE VALLEY
Honey Lake valley, the Land of the Never Sweats, was the part of the county first settled; and was for almost twenty years the only part of it that was settled to any great extent. Its size and location can be seen from the map. The mountains on its southern and western sides are heavily timbered; but those on the north and east are without timber, excepting a few scattering junipers. The lake is shallow, the water muddy, and more or less alkaline. The peninsula extending into the lake is locally known as "The Island," or, as lately called by some, "Honey Island." The elevation of Honey lake is 3949 feet.
The early settlers found the valley in some respects different from what it is now; and what is said about this valley applies, in almost every way, to the rest of the county. Excepting some natural meadow land along the streams, the country was covered with sagebrush. Those who came through here in early days remembered that more than anything else. On a great deal of land where little or no grass can now be seen, rye grass grew as high as a man's head, and bunch grass grew everywhere. There was literally "thousands of feed." Uncle Johnny Baxter said that December, 1857, about a foot of snow came. He had a little bunch of cattle running around his place, which was about three- quarters of a mile down the edge of the timber from Janesville, or Bankhead's; and when they came near the house he threw some hay out to them. They sniffed at it a little and went away without eating it. There was plenty of dry grass above the snow, and they liked it better than they did the hay. For many years stock did well all winter without feed, and it was a matter of
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HISTORY OF LASSEN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
astonishment how fat the range cattle got in the summer time. In the fall of 1856 Fred Hines traded for some poor emigrant oxen out on the Humboldt river. He drove them to this valley and left them on the range through the winter. He said that the next spring they were the fattest cattle he ever saw.
The ground had not been tramped down, and was light and loose, and there were no trails or roads to carry the water off. During the rainy season the water went into the ground and made it very soft. All over the valley it would "mire a saddle blanket." One spring in the early 60's, John F. Hulsman hauled a load of wood to Richmond with a couple of yoke of oxen. On the way home the wheel cattle walked faster than the leaders, and would turn out and try to pass them. Every time one of them got a little out of the road he mired down, and Hulsman had to pull him out with the leaders. This happened so many times that it took him nearly all the afternoon to get home, a distance of only a few miles. On account of the looseness of the soil, it was easily worked. In 1862 S. R. Hall put in thirty-five acres of grain on the south side of the river seven or eight miles below Susanville. He never plowed the ground, just harrowed in the seed, and he got thirty-five bushels of oats, and twenty-five bushels of wheat, to the acre.
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