Air Service F Forest Fire Patrol plane over Oregon in 1924 – Air Force photo

On Friday, June 25th, a wildfire began its march toward Susanville, aided by a stiff wind from the west, and by Sunday the entire town was in danger. Citizens anxiously watched the smoke as it plumed up into the sky and more than 1,000 men rushed to the five-mile-wide fire front to help.

Once again, the lumber mills closed and sent their men to the front to aid in the suppression, and City Manager M. J. Tilley immediately drafted the entire male population of Susanville to help.

Worried city officials called Sacramento for assistance. The State Forest Inspector, A. B. Frost, hurried to his airplane and left Mather Field in Sacramento to aid the local authorities in their assault on the advancing flames.

In just an hour and twenty minutes he was overhead, surveying the scene and formulating a plan of attack. He then landed and met with county and city officials to direct the charge.

The fire roared down the canyon towards town, jumped the Susan River and scorched several buildings before the situation eased. Fortunately, fuel was diminished as the conflagration met the denuded area of the 1924 fire. The town, covered in embers and ashes, was still in dire danger, but with a change in the wind, the threat lessened as the fire was blown back upon itself.

Local citizens uneasily took a small sigh of relief. By about 7:30 in the evening, it was declared ‘under control’, but a force of about 250 men remained on duty to watch for a reprisal from the enemy.

From Susanville, the night sky appeared as scenes of Hell as Roop Mountain disappeared in the flames, and many feared that there would be no way to stop the inferno from reaching the town.

This devastating fire erupted when Lassen County Road Department employee, Charles Hurlbut, built a small campfire while working on Rice Canyon Road. The sparks escaped their designated space and the surrounding foliage was quickly engulfed in flames. A few local men rushed to the site and attempted to halt the blaze, but they were no match for the ‘perfect fire conditions’.

Hurlbut raced to town for help, but there was little to be done. By Tuesday, the fire had crossed the highway on Antelope Mountain and was surging in all directions.

The fire sped through the available fuel, racing like a freight train towards Susanville, at some places advancing a half-mile in three minutes. Besides the valuable timber lands, mainly owned by the Red River Lumber Company, wildlife, livestock, and fence lines succumbed to its force.

Its eventual twenty-mile-wide front was a horrific sight as every north facing view, from Litchfield to Eagle Lake, became engulfed in flames. Ranchers hurried into the fire zone to attempt to remove their livestock, and every able-bodied man in Susanville was, once again, sent to the front of the fire to assist in saving the town.

Many suggested using dynamite to subdue the flames, destroying any possible propellant in the inferno’s path. Some ranchers used back-fires to attempt to stop the flames, with variable success. Charley Cooper’s cabin on Antelope Mountain was saved, but others were not so fortunate.

As the local ranchers gathered their livestock and moved them to safety, Susanville’s female population packed up their most precious and necessary belongings and prepared for the worst, as every able-bodied man in the town had been sent out to confront the advancing enemy.

By August 26th, the atmospheric conditions had changed for the better. There were even light showers to help quell the fires. The flames near Doyle eased to the point that firefighters could bring them under control, and near Milford the conditions continued to improve. People in Susanville could no longer see the glow in the sky from the south county fires.

In Susanville, everyone gave a sigh of relief as authorities reported on the conditions. The ‘fire traps’, blasted with dynamite to remove fuel from the advancing flames, had held. The surge of the fire front was slowed, and everything was calming down.

For the first time in many days, new recruits were not called for on the fire lines, the lumber mills reopened and called their workmen back to work, and life slowly and warily edged towards normal.

The worst wildfire in Lassen County history had been brought under control.

The formula used for calculating the grazing fee was established by Congress in the 1978 Public Rangelands Improvement Act and has remained in use under a 1986 presidential Executive Order. Under that order, the grazing fee cannot fall below $1.35 per animal unit month / head month, and any increase or decrease cannot exceed 25 percent of the previous year’s level.

The annually determined grazing fee is established using a 1966 base value of $1.23 per animal unit month / head month for livestock grazing on public lands in Western states.

The figure is then calculated according to three factors: current private grazing land lease rates, beef cattle prices, and the cost of livestock production. In effect, the fee rises, falls, or stays the same based on market conditions.

The BLM and Forest Service are committed to strong relationships with the ranching community and work closely with permittees to ensure public rangelands remain healthy, productive working landscapes.

The grazing fee applies in 16 Western states on public lands administered by the BLM and the Forest Service. The states are Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Permit holders and lessees may contact their local BLM or Forest Service office for additional information.

You can RSVP to 1.530.257.7636 or email Pat Civiletti at pciviletti@gmail.com.

A 1900 photo of N&C Railroad’s Locomotive #1 from Railroads of

Nevada and Eastern California: The northern roads by David F. Myrick

Extend Line Into Modoc This Year

February 2, 1914

Permission by the State Railroad Commission to the Southern Pacific Company to borrow $55,000,000 provides for over $2,000,000 for the extension of the Fernley and Lassen line from its present terminus twenty-four miles north of Susanville.

Coupled with the statement of the railroad officials that the loan is floated, this makes a certainty the completion of the Southern Pacific from Susanville to Lookout, Modoc County and possibly even as far as Klamath Falls, Ore., by this time next year.



Materials and supplies are at the end of the road beyond Susanville to carry the line into Big Valley, sixty miles further, and work will be crowded the minute weather will permit. Construction outfits and teams have wintered in Lassen County to get an early start in the spring.