Lassen County began as a frontier outpost BEFORE THE ARRIVAL of the white man, several Native American tribes — including the Mountain Maidu, Paiute, Pitt River and Washoe — called Lassen County home. The indigenous native peoples lived off the land, and their villages, artwork and sacred sites are scattered throughout the county. Following the trails left behind by fur trappers from the Hudson Bay Company in the 1830s, John C. Fremont and his army passed through the area prior to the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846 that led to the short-lived California Republic. After the Mexican-American War, Mexico ceded California to the United States, and it became the 31st state in the union on Sept. 9, 1850. The discovery of gold in California in 1849 brought thousands of emigrants to California. Peter Lassen, one of Fremont’s guides and a famous trapper, frontiersman and Indian fighter for whom the county is named, first came to the area in 1851.
That same year, seeking an alternative to the hazardous Donner Pass Trail, William Nobles led wagon trains on the Nobles Emigrant Trail that passed through Susanville and the Honey Lake Valley, crossing the Sierra at a lower elevation. In 1854, Isaac Roop opened a small trading post in what was then known as Rooptown or Roopville, depending upon the source. With the discovery of gold in the area in 1856, some settlers decided to stay for good. Eventually the town was renamed Susanville, in honor of Roop’s daughter, Susan. Led by Roop and Lassen, the area became known as Nataqua, a separate territory in its own right. In 1861 when the Territory of Nevada was established, Roop was named the governor of the new territory. His trading post later became known as Roop’s Fort because it was used during the Sagebrush War, a series of small gun battles fought by local residents and deputies from neighboring
Plumas County seeking to collect taxes. Roop’s Fort, the oldest building in the county, still stands near the intersection of Main and Weatherlow streets by Memorial Park in Susanville. The locals formed Lassen County in order to keep the tax money local after it was determined the area was actually part of California and not part of Nevada as they had believed. By the 1880s, other area towns such as Herlong, Janesville, Doyle, Standish, Bieber, Hayden Hill and Wendel were founded. The railroads and the timber industry contributed to the county’s development. Susanville had two large mills and the Red River Lumber Company in Westwood was home to the world’s largest electrical sawmill of its day. The city of Susanville was founded in 1854 by Roop and incorporated in 1900. Susanville is located in the northeast corner of California, midway between Redding and Reno, Nev. With many nearby lakes,
streams and open spaces, the Susanville area was voted the Pacific Region’s Best Place to Live for Sportsmen by Outdoor Life Magazine in April 2008. ❖
Sam Williams
REMEMBERING A TOWN THAT USED TO BE — Memorialized by this
marker near the old clubhouse at the Diamond Mountain Golf Club, the town of Richmond grew dramatically in 1859, but it died quickly when the gold played out in 1862.
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Lassen County Visitors Guide 2011-12
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