Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/297

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The region about Lassen Peak for many miles is very rugged, the few valleys suitable for agriculture lying at an elevation of from 5,000 to 7,000 feet. Naturally it is sparsely settled, and this year, on the date of the first eruption, the snow was still very deep, obscuring all roads and trails down to the six-thousand-foot level. On account of the unusually late season, the summer influx of cattlemen, lumbermen and campers had not yet begun; probably the nearest occupied house was at least eight miles distant from the mountain top.

Prompt investigation of the first eruption is due to the fortunate fact that the mountain is included in the Lassen Peak National Forest and that the United States Forest Service had built a fire look-out station on the topmost crag of Lassen Peak itself. The summer headquarters of the forest supervisor, Mr. W. J. Rushing, are in Battle Creek Meadows, near Mineral postoffice, a little more than ten miles in an air line from the top of the mountain. The look-out house on Lassen and the other stations also are connected with the supervisor’s headquarters by the government telephone lines which extend to the town of Red Bluff, nearly fifty miles to the westward, giving direct communication with San Francisco. When the eruptions began the fire look-out station on Lassen had not yet been occupied for the summer season of 1914, but it was the property of the Forest Service and a station of importance. It will be seen then that the interests and resources of the Forestry Service as indicated above were such that reports of volcanic activity on Lassen were investigated at once and definite records kept of the reports brought in to headquarters.

The following extracts are from the report of Forest Supervisor W. J. Rushing to the District Forester at San Francisco, made June 9.

Such wild stories are being circulated concerning Mt. Lassen that I am