Stuck on the highway between Susanville and Westwood in the 1930’s
By 1931, the dangerous aspects of the highway were again on the minds of local citizens. It was obvious that to make the curve into Susanville less dangerous, some houses would need to be removed.
The city worked to obtain a new right-of-way through established homes at the site. Those citizens who were going to lose their homes were Wright L. Spalding and Mrs. Lena Caughell, and others, including Hans P. Jensen, E. W. Short and George Scott owned unimproved property in the proposed right-of-way.
The owners demanded a total of $26,500 for their property, and the city just didn’t have the money. The state highway commission eventually agreed to pay $10,000 to help, and Short and Jensen, who only had vacant land agreed to a tentative property exchange to ease the situation.
The city faced the problem of either paying the landowners, filing condemnation suits, or simply abandoning the project altogether and leaving the city entrance as it was.
By July, negotiations and plans to redo the section of highway from Devil’s Corral to Susanville were going ‘full steam ahead’, and engineers worked frantically to find solutions to the many concerns about the dangers of the highway. They came up with a proposal.
The short perilous curves would be replaced with larger turns and the new entrance into Susanville would have the level lowered by eight feet to make a long sweeping grade.
Finally, by March 1932 the long negotiations with the property owners were finalized.
Wright Spalding got $9,500 and Lena Caughell received $3,500. George Scott sold his vacant lot to the city for $500. The state paid $12,500, which left only $1,000 for the city to come up with. It was a great deal for the city because they had excess property. Whole lots were purchased, so they could then sell the excess land that was not needed for the right-of-way itself.
All buildings had to be removed from the right-of-way before April 15, 1932, and Mayor E. P. Honsberger agreed to finish this task on time. This feat was accomplished, and work began immediately to finish the Red Bluff – Susanville Highway and secure a safe new 100’ wide entrance into Susanville. The entire project was to be completed in one year, with different contractors working on different sections of the highway.
W. C. Colley of Berkeley was awarded the contract to construct the road from Devil’s Corral into Susanville for $219,000. Colley promised to hire as much local labor as possible, a wonderful ‘plus’ since unemployment was at an all-time high as the Great Depression was in ‘full swing’. Everything was in place and agreed upon, and the work of rerouting and realigning the highway began.
By the spring of 1934 the final coating of crushed rock and oil was applied to the beautiful new Red Bluff – Susanville Highway. It had been many years in the making, but travelers could now enjoy 108 miles of the best road available.
As the work finished on the Red Bluff – Susanville section of the highway, crews immediately moved to the other end of town to begin work on the route to Reno.
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