Learn the Story of Isaac Roop and Susanville at the Lassen Historical Museum

Just about everything you could ever want to know about Susanville, California, and Lassen County, can be found in the Lassen Historical Museum in Susanville.

Interestingly, you’ll also learn about the remarkable connections that Susanville has to early Nevada.

The museum is located at 115 North Weatherlow Street, about one block north of Main Street. Susanville itself is located 86 miles northwest of Reno via U.S. 395.

Susanville traces its name and its roots to one man, Isaac Roop. In June 1854, Roop erected a one-story log house from which he sold goods to emigrants traveling through the area on the Nobles Emigrant Trail, which had been established a few years earlier.

Known as the Roop House or Roop’s Fort (as well as Fort Defiance), the crude building sold staples as well as tobacco and whiskey. In 1856, the structure was the site of the signing of a document forming the State of Nataqua (allegedly a Native American word for “woman” or “wife”), with frontiersman Peter Lassen named President and Roop as secretary.

Apparently, that portion of what today is Lassen County and Washoe County (in California and Nevada) was not clearly defined when the boundary between California and the Utah Territory (of which Nevada was then part of) was drawn so residents believed they could create their own territory or state to avoid being taxed by either.

In 1859, the short-lived Nataqua territory became of the effort to create a Nevada Territory and Roop was named the first Provisional Territorial Governor of Nevada (with all believing the Susanville area and Honey Lake were in what was designated as Roop County, Nevada Territory).

This confusion regarding where the boundary between California and the new Nevada Territory persisted until February 1863, when Plumas County, California officials decided to resolve the matter by issuing warrants for the arrest of Roop and other local citizens.

Known as the Sagebrush War, the conflict—which only lasted a day and a half—began when the Plumas County Sheriff and 40 men arrived in Susanville to enforce the county’s authority over the region. After a day of unsuccessful negotiation, apparently the two sides began shooting at each other.

The skirmish continued for about four hours with the Susanville/Honey Lake continguent holed up in Roop’s House while the Plumas County group clustered in a barn that was about 500-feet away. During the back-and-forth volleys, either two or three participants were injured but there were no casualties.

Finally, a truce was called and the warring parties (if you call them that) agreed to cease hostilities and let the governments of California and the Nevada Territory resolve the matter. A year later, a survey showed the area was indeed inside California’s borders and in response the California legislature established Lassen County, with Susanville named the county seat.

Despite not being able to serve as Nevada’s provisional governor, Roop played an important role in the community. Generally considered the town’s founder, the name, Susanville, is derived from Roop’s daughter’s name. The settlement was originally named Rooptown but was changed by Roop to Susanville in 1857.

As for Roop’s background, he was born in Maryland in 1822 and headed to Shasta County, California in 1850, after his wife died. After establishing a successful farming and trading business, he lost nearly everything in a fire. In 1853, he moved to the Honey Lake area to rebuild his fortune with a trading post.

He served as District Attorney of Lassen County from 1864 until his death in 1869.

The Lassen Historical Museum, which encompasses the original Roop’s Fort, offers a number of displays that spotlight regional history. In addition to arrowhead collections and Native American art, it features diplays of antique weapons, equipment, furniture, and bottles, as well as an extensive historic photograph collection.

A visit to the fort is worthwhile just to get a sense of the rough and challenging conditions under which the community’s founder once lived and worked.

For more information, go to: www.cityofsusanville.net/departments/administration/community-development/parks-and-rec/museum/.

The museum is open year-round, call for hours at 530-257-3292.

Once the Crossroads of Northeastern Nevada, Mountain City Now Slowly Disappears

“Mountain City is not a town or city or anything else. Mountain City is copper and a little silver and less gold. Mountain City is a state of flux and impermanence.” —Gregory Martin. Mountain City, 2000

It’s fortunate that writers like Gregory Martin and Helen Oster and Shawn Hall and Stanley Paher have written portions of the story of Mountain City, located about 85 miles north of Elko and 16 miles from the Idaho border, because the community is slowly but surely fading away.

Founded in 1869, Mountain City was originally known as Cope after gold was discovered near what became the townsite by a miner named Jesse Cope. A mining district formed in May of that year and within a month some 300 people had settled in the area,

In July—things happened quickly—Cope was renamed Mountain City and by the end of the summer the settlement boasted more than 700 people. Historical accounts say that the town had nine stores, two rooming houses, two bakeries, two breweries, four blacksmith shops, two livery stables, two drugstores, an assay office, a bank, a post office, one first-class hotel, a brothel and an astounding 20 saloons. A year later, it had grown to encompass more than 200 buildings and had a population of nearly 1,000. A school opened in July 1871.

But like so many other mining towns, the ore began to be played out. By early 1872, the population started to decline as miners moved on to more promising areas. By 1875, Mountain City had only 77 residents and by 1882 the population was down to 20.

As mining declined, ranching became more prominent and several large outfits started in the area.

The area continued to experience ebbs and flows over the next decades including short-lived booms from 1877-1880 and again from 1904 to 1908.

Mountain City’s fortunes perked up in the early 1930s after the discovery of large copper deposits in nearby Rio Tinto (about four miles southeast). Many of the buildings still standing in the town today date from this period, when Mountain City became the major supply point for those working the Rio Tinto mines.

But like earlier booms, Rio Tinto began to decline in the late 1940s and Mountain City did too. The town saw a brief flurry of new mining interest—this time, uranium—in the mid-1950s but that fizzled within a few years when the ore deposits proved to be smaller than originally thought.

Since then, the community has had a permanent of between 75-80, many of whom work on area ranches, a handful of local businesses and government offices (the US Forest Service has an office there).

Sadly, one of the town’s longest lasting businesses, Tremewan’s Store, which was the subject of Gregory Martin’s book (his family operated it for more than 40 years), closed in 2002. Other businesses, like the Miner’s Club, still stand but have long been closed and abandoned.

One place that has survived is the Mountain City Motel, Bar and Steakhouse, a popular local hangout that offers good food in a friendly atmosphere. It is located at 525 Davidson Street (Highway 225 is called Davidson Street in Mountain City limits), 775-763-6622,

A great source of historical information about Mountain City is Shawn Hall’s book, “Old Heart of Nevada: Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of Elko County,” published by the University of Nevada Press and available from Amazon.

Court of Antiquities Near Sparks is Unexpected Delight

Travelers on Interstate 80, heading east of Sparks, Nevada, have no idea what’s located about two miles from the Vista Boulevard exit.

They have no idea with good reason. No one would think that wedged between the vehicles racing more than 70-miles-per-hour on the Interstate and the Truckee River is a rock platform containing prehistoric petroglyphs.

Known as the Court of Antiquity, allegedly because Native American people once met there in council, the site is an historic treasure that, while not in the best of conditions, has no doubt survived because it’s so difficult to reach.

From Sparks, the best way to get to the Court of Antiquity is by traveling about three miles to a sharp turnout on the right of the Interstate (it appears to be an abandoned rest stop or road). After parking, you must walk west for nearly a mile to reach the site.

A few words of advice, cars on the interstate are going fast. Really fast. Remember to signal well ahead of time before attempting to turn-off to avoid any accidents. Additionally, the site is on a bench adjacent to a steep drop off, just above the river, so walk carefully.

In 2011, Washoe County officials actually hired an architectural firm to develop a plan for a public park at the site (the plan can be found online) but since then there has been no effort to preserve the site or make it more available to the public for unknown reasons.

According to the plan, a gravel road leading to a parking area would be developed from the east of the site, which literally sits on a cliff above the river. One trail would lead to a seating area offering a view of the rock art with interpretive signage while another would lead to an overlook of the river with more interpretive signs.

Today when you view the site, the experience is both inspiring and kind of depressing. Inspiring because the petroglyphs, while worn by the elements and the effects of time, can still be viewed; depressing because the site is littered with garbage tossed from passing cars or left by people who appear to have visited and/or camped in the area.

Physically, the site consists of a flat rock platform or floor on which several petroglyphs, which are prehistoric rock writing, have been carved. Surrounding the rock floor are two-to three-foot stone walls on which more petroglyphs are carved.

The images, which may be thousands of years old, include squiggly lines and shapes, round shapes with centipede-like legs, something resembling a paw print, and other interesting drawings.

According to most historians, rock art like that found at the court should be viewed as a system of communication but not writing. Since little is known about those who created it, the exact meaning of the symbols and images is not known.

Since the site isn’t easy to reach at the present time, one of the best ways to view it is Howard Goldbaum’s 3D imagery found at https://allaroundnevada.com/court-of-antiquity/.

Goldbaum, who is a recently-retired University of Nevada, Reno journalism professor, has created a phenomenal tool for getting a true sense of the place without having to go there. Prompts on the images allow you to view them from afar as well as close-up and allow excellent views of many of the symbols carved in the rock walls and surfaces.