SUSANVILLE

city, seat (1864) of Lassen County, northeastern California, U.S., on the Susan River, at the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada, at the head of the Honey Lake Valley, 80 mi (129 km) northwest of Reno, Nev. In 1853 Isaac Roop staked a claim and built a cabin on the site. The following year Peter Lassen and a group of prospectors joined him; they struck gold, and the settlement, later named for Roop's daughter, became a bustling mining town. In 1856 Roop established the short-lived republic of Nataqua and made Susanville its capital. The city is now a marketing and shipping centre for an agricultural area (dairy products and grain) and has lumber and flour mills. It is the seat of Lassen College (1925) and is a gateway to Lassen Volcanic National Park and Lassen National Forest (headquartered at Susanville). The Roop's Fort and William Pratt Memorial Museum (1854) was the capitol building of the Nataqua republic, which in 1863 resisted California's jurisdiction (the Sagebrush War). Eagle Lake and the California Conservation Center are nearby. Inc. town, 1900; city, 1940. Pop. (1990) 7,279.