Editing Lassen County, California (section)

==History==
Lassen County was formed on April 1, 1864,<ref>{{cite web|title=California: Individual County Chronologies |url=https://publications.newberry.org/ahcb/documents/CA_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm |website=publications.newberry.org |publisher=The [[Newberry Library]] |date=2003 |access-date=April 29, 2025}}</ref> from parts of [[Plumas County, California|Plumas]] and [[Shasta County, California|Shasta]] counties following the two-day conflict known as the [[Sagebrush War]], also called the [[Roop County War]],<ref>{{cite web|title=The Roop County War |url=https://nevadacas.com/rccsawar |website=nevadacas.com |publisher=Nevada Cowboy Action Shooting |access-date=April 29, 2025}}</ref> that started on Sunday morning, February 15, 1863. Due to uncertainties over the California border, the area that is now Lassen County was part of the unofficial [[Nataqua Territory]] and [[Roop County, Nevada]], during the late 1850s and early 1860s.

The county was named by California after [[Peter Lassen]],<ref name="LCH">[http://www.cagenweb.com/lassen/his.htm Lassen County History], Lassen County, California Genweb Project, 2006, accessed January 14, 2014</ref> along with [[Lassen Peak]], which is in adjoining Shasta County.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gannett|first=Henry|title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ|year=1905|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n181 182]}}</ref> Lassen was one of General [[John C. Fremont]]'s guides, and a famous trapper, frontiersman, and Indian fighter. He was murdered under mysterious circumstances near the [[Black Rock Desert]] in 1859, and his murder was never solved.

By the 1880s small towns began to spring up all over Lassen County. [[Bieber, California|Bieber]] developed at the north end of the county, in rich farmland. Gold was discovered at Hayden Hill, and the small town developed to support the miners. Hayden Hill no longer exists: when the mining stopped, the townspeople left for other communities. Madeline was formed at the north end of another rich farming valley, and along the railroad tracks heading north to [[Alturas, California]]. This community still has about 50 people living in and around the town. In the 1890s many immigrant family groups arrived in the county, primarily coming from [[Lincolnshire]] and [[Herefordshire]], [[England]] as well as the towns of [[Belgrade]], [[Novi Sad]], [[Niš]] and [[Kragujevac]] in [[Serbia]].<ref name="ReferenceA">Serbian Studies, Volumes 4–5 - North American Society for Serbian Studies, 1986</ref><ref>Henderson, George; Olasiji, Thompson Dele (1995). Migrants, Immigrants, and Slaves: Racial and Ethnic Groups in America. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. ISBN 0-8191-9738-6.</ref> Several "Yankee" settlers arrived from [[Waldo County, Maine]] and [[Lincoln County, Maine]] as well.<ref>Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Clovis, Calif.: Word Dancer Press. p. 355</ref>

During World War I, the area was heavily in favor of American entry into the war, and a disproportionate amount of volunteers from Lassen County signed up to take part in the war effort. A pro-German newspaper editor from San Francisco noted that "the inhabitants of Lassen County" were "sympathetic to Britain, hostile to Germany, and indifferent to France."<ref>The Projection of Britain
British Overseas Publicity and Propaganda 1919-1939 by Philip M. Taylor, Taylor Philip M. Taylor · 1981</ref><ref>Serb World. 5–6. Neven Publishing Corporation. 1988. p. 40.</ref><ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>California at War The State and the People During World War I By Diane M. T. North · 2018</ref>

A [[Narrow gauge rail transport|narrow gauge railroad]], the [[Nevada-California-Oregon Railway]], ran through Lassen County from 1880 to 1927. The NCOR was the longest small gauge of the century. It was intended to connect [[Reno, Nevada]], to the [[Columbia River]], but only {{convert|238|mi|km}} of track were laid, from Reno to [[Lakeview, Oregon]].

In 1913, the Fernley & Lassen Railroad was built and it was used to export timber from the large forests of Lassen County. As this railroad was completed, the Red River Lumber Company set up shop,<ref name ="LCH" /> building the town of [[Westwood, California]], to support its massive logging operation. Two other lumber mills followed the Red River Lumber Co. They built their mills in the county seat of Susanville. The Lassen Lumber and Box Company and the Fruit Growers Company both operated mills in Susanville for several decades.

In 2003, [[Anderson, California|Anderson]]-based Sierra Pacific Industries announced plans to relocate or lay off 150 workers as they closed the last lumber mill in Susanville due to the lack of large timber for the mill.<ref name ="LAT">[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-dec-18-me-sbriefs18.4-story.html "Town's Last Mill to Be Shut Down"], ''Los Angeles Times'', December 18, 2003</ref>  Sierra Pacific chose to close the mill permanently rather than spend the several million dollars required to convert the mill from large to small timber.

Since the late 20th century, three prisons have been opened in and near Susanville: [[California Correctional Center]] (minimum security, 1963) and [[High Desert State Prison (California)]] (maximum security, 1995), both in the city; and the nearby [[Federal Correctional Institution, Herlong]] (opened 2007). In 2007, half the adults in Susanville worked in one of the three prisons.<ref name="taylor"/> In "job-starved rural America, ... residents see them [prisons] as the last and only chance for employment after work at the lumber mill or the dairy dries up."<ref name="taylor">[http://www.mercurynews.com/tv/ci_6488035?nclick_check=1 Taylor, Robert. "'Prison Town' a view from outside," ''Contra Costa Times'', 28 July 2007; hosted at ''Mercury News.'']</ref>