Lassen Meadow

" A broad and perfectly level semi-circular area, very dusty, sweeps around the bend ..."   "...in the forks of the road I observed a red painted barrel....about the size of a whisky-barrel, iron hoops, and square hole cut in the head; and neatly painted in black block letters, upon it, 'POST OFFICE'."  J. Goldsborough Bruff, 1849
 

The area Bruff described in his diary is now covered with water from the Rye Patch Reservoir.  Note trail coming out in center of picture.

Road to Rabbit Hole

"We now are gradually ascending, and have to pass over a more irregular plain, of a redish clay, and numerous small stones, with scattered dusty sage bushes." J. Goldsborough Bruff, 1849

1989 Chapter outing from Winnemucca to Gerlach, near Antelope Springs

Susan Coon grave - Antelope Springs

The Coon family descendants attended installation of an OCTA bronze marker, commemorating Susan Coon's death at that site.

Painted Canyon

Rabbit Hole Springs

"Great numbers of rabbits came around us and we killed all we wanted of them.  This is the place always since known as the Rabbit Hole Springs." Lindsay Applegate, 1846

Outing on the Black Rock Playa, 1989.

Wagons on the Black Rock Desert, 1993

"About five miles before reaching Hot Springs, struck onto a bottom as hard and level as a barn floor and we could see it for a distance of 40 miles in length and from four to a dozen miles wide, not a sign of vegetation on it, but a white hard baked clay and surrounded by very high mountains." William Gregg McPherson, 1859.

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Black Rock

Black Rock Boiling Spring

"The water at the springs is boiling hot, but spreads out and cools for stock.  We put tea in a jug and boiled it in the water, and it steeped as quick as could be done on a stove."   William Gregg McPherson, 1859

Inscriptions on overhanging rock in Fly Canyon - 

J. J. Pool Au.24th 1849; J. G. Hallick; T. E. Cook; and W. W. Parker

High Rock Canyon

"...enter the jaws of a rent hill of black-red red, which seems to have opened as if to swallow one up."  Joseph Middleton, 1849

 "It was a singular place to shut up in the earth, a sort of chasm, the little strip of grass under our feet, the rough walls of bare rock on either hand, and the narrow strip of sky above."  John C. Fremont, 1843

High Rock Cave

"...entered a cave at the base of the mountain, dimensions 20 by 40 feet;"   Isaac Foster, 1849

"In the face of the perpendicular wall of the right side, at base, is a singular cave, ...  much smoked inside.  Names and dates scratched all over the outer wall around the mouth of the cave, and numbers within."  J. Goldsborough Bruff, 1849

Cave Arch

"The entrance is a low flat arch, 4 ft. high"  J. Goldsborough Bruff, 1849

The Narrows in High Rock Canyon

"At the head of this cul de sac of the Canon, was another chasm - rent by volcanic action, about 300 feet high..." 

"In the narrow canon,...I noticed the correspondence of the two sides,"  J. Goldsborough Bruff, 1849

East View of Narrows

This was the view of the Narrows that Applegate had traveling west to east.

Looking West from the Narrows

Note the wide grassy path where even yet the sagebrush doesn't grow.

Singular Rock

Note how unchanged Singular Rock is since 1849 when sketched by J. Goldsborough Bruff.

Note:  Click on the image for a larger view.

Painted Point

Although J. Goldsborough Bruff sketched Painted Point, his diary gives no description except to mention it as "Rock promontery."

Conical Rocks

"Here the valley is narrow & on the left hand side the hills are not high & their sides are perfect cones of a grey colour about 30 feet high..."  Pardon Dexter Tiffany, 1849.

Pit River Fish Trap

Note rocks across the river forming a dam. 

"Where we camped there was an Indian fish trap.  They make a dam across the river and in the middle of it put a large willow basket nearly made, and drive the fish into it."  Henry C. St. Clair, 1849.

Rattlesnake Butte

"A few hundred yards N.W. of our camp, a tall, symetrical butte, or isolated mountain, rises from the level plain, like a tent."  J. Goldsborough Bruff, 1849.

Lassen Monument

Clean-up crew at Bruff's Campground, 1991

"From the Pitt River we passed into a heavily timbered, mountainous district.  Here we encountered a terrible wind storm one night; the crashing of the big pine trees, as they fell, echoing and re-echoing through the gorges, sounded like deafening thunder, and made the earth fairly shake." 

"We saw a woman on her knees, weeping and praying." 

"She told us that on the evening of that dreadful storm,... while she and her children were asleep in the wagon, the husband and son... were both crushed under a large tree that fell just beyond the wagon.  They were instantly killed,"  Oliver Goldsmith, 1849.

Sketch by Dick Davis