Lake Almanor West Community Club
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HISTORY HISTORY OF THE LAKE ALMANOR WEST COMMUNITY
Lake Almanor West is 615 acres with about 2.5 miles of shoreline. The initial lot sales began in 1974 with 650 lots for sale. We now have 695 lots. The developer said “The prime objective of the project is to help satisfy recreational second home housing demands for low to medium density, moderately expensive living units, with a minimum of maintenance responsibilities.” He proposed that 56% of the land (344 acres) be used for residential lots, 10% of the land (61.5 acres) used for roads and the remaining 34% of the land would be for common areas, such as golf course, tennis courts, recreational area and open space. In the original plan the Top of the West area was to be open space, but later it was changed to a multi-unit development, and still later was changed to single family residential units.
Originally the golf
course was basically a greenbelt. In 1977 the preparation for a 9 hole
course began and took several years to complete. The Clubhouse was added
in 1980 and the course officially opened in 1981.
The California Gold Rush
brought miners to the areas immediately south of the Lake Almanor basin.
Locally, early cattlemen and dairymen took advantage of the meadow lands
for grazing. In the late 1840s the Lassen Trail passed directly through
Big Meadows on its way to Soldier Meadows and points west, ending at Vina. Two other routes, the Humbug Road and Humboldt Road, connected the
basin with Oroville and Chico. Beef and dairy products were transported
to the Sacramento Valley and supplies were brought back to the local
valleys. It was estimated that as many as 10,000 head of cattle grazed
the meadow in the summer of 1857. Once the problems with electric power transmissions had been solved a great interest in hydro-electric power developed. In 1901 Julius Howells, a civil engineer, saw the area and thought a storage reservoir could be built on the North Fork of the Feather River. He talked with the Earl brothers of San Francisco and they became interested. They formed the Western Power Company to build the dam and hydro-electric facilities. Guy C. Earl, President of Western Power, named the lake in honor of his daughters, Alice, Martha, and Eleanor. In 1910 construction on the dam began and was completed in 1914. The lake was less than a fifth of its current capacity. There were two dam expansions that brought the lake up to its present dimensions. Western Power merged into Great Western Power Company and was sold to the North American Company. In 1930 Pacific Gas and Electric Company bought the Great Western holdings and is now the current owner and operator of the lake.
Massive timber harvesting
was necessary to clear the lake area and was done by the Red River
Lumber Company. The logs were hauled to their mill in Westwood, which
closed in the 1950s. Collins Pine built their Chester mill in the early
1940s. Collins and Sierra Pacific Industries are now the main forest
products firms in the area.
Lake Almanor Basin
general geology is predominantly volcanic in nature although there are
distinctly Sierra outcroppings in some parts of the extreme southern
end. Geologically speaking, the area is one of active volcanism and many
of the rock formations on the shores of Lake Almanor are quite young.
Seismic activity is still being reported in the region, particularly in
the Mt. Lassen area. Although there are several mapped faults in the
Basin, there are no active fault traces located in LAW. During the
last glacial period the basin was probably subject to periodic
inundation from meltwaters and lake deposits were formed. The town of
Chester, about 4 miles north of LAW, is situated on such lake deposits.
LAW, however, is not on lake deposits and is on surface outcrops which
are made entirely of volcanic material. Rock is exposed in several
locations. The majority of LAW is covered by a red-brown silty sand—the
weathered product of andesite lava flows. A small mud flow deposit is
located in the south-central portion of LAW. A fine sandy silt is the
weathered product of this rock, and it is rare to find hard rock
outcrops in this area. The soils in LAW have been classified as
Cohasset stony loam. The soils are usually brown to reddish-brown in
color, are somewhat stony throughout and drainage and permeability are
generally quite good.
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