Remember when: April 22, 2009

This past week, Iris Turner, one of our Society members, and I were looking for addresses of old houses that are still standing in Anderson for a project we are doing for the city and Anderson New Technology High School.

One of the places I remembered so well from my childhood was the home of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Franklin Loomis, on the corner of Mill and Silver streets, where they spent their winters.

As a small child, I enjoyed many hours with Estella Loomis as my Grandmother Rupert lived just down Silver Street. Mrs. Loomis had many tales to tell of their lives at Mt. Lassen and Viola where she and her husband spent their springs, summers and falls.

Of course, B.F. Loomis was a famous photographer. Many of his pictures of the eruptions of Mt. Lassen are in our files at the Anderson Historical Society and Museum. Loomis also built a sawmill following the closure of the Vilas sawmill, as he owned many acres of timber. The annual cut on his land ranged from 800,000 board feet to 1 million board feet.

Benjamin Franklin Loomis was born on March 21, 1857, in Mantega, Ill., to Addison and Emily Loomis. As a small boy, Loomis traveled west with his parents and older brother, Orin Augustus, across the plains in a covered wagon. They settled first in Tehama County. When young Benjamin was 9, his mother died and his father moved the family - now including sister Lucy Ella - to Red Bluff.

In 1874, B.F. Loomis came to Manzanita Lake and built a small cabin. He made his living making and selling wood shakes in the summer, and working as a farm laborer in Battle Creek Bottoms during the winter. In 1886, Loomis attended the American Institute of Phrenology in New York City, and also took classes in anatomy, physiology, astronomy and astrology.

This was primarily for his own edification as he apparently had no plans to become a practitioner or lecturer, though he studied and wrote on the topic for many years.

Following his studies, Loomis returned to California and to making shakes in the Manzanita Lake area. In 1888, he filed a homestead claim on Bailey Creek, the present-day Viola, moved to his homestead in 1891, and built a general store in 1895.

In 1897, while serving on a jury in Redding, Loomis met fellow jurist Leander Vaness (L.V.) Loomis (1827-1909), an emigrant pioneer of Shasta County and no relation to B.F. Loomis.

The two men shared an interest in phrenology and astronomy, so B.F. Loomis spent the trial recess at the L.V. Loomis family home. Here, B.F. Loomis was introduced to L.V. Loomis' daughter, Estella (1870-1953). B.F. Loomis married Estella Loomis on Sept. 1, 1897. Their only child, Louisa Mae, was born June 16, 1899.

B.F. Loomis hauled his roofing shakes to the valley floor and brought freight back up to Shingletown and Viola while Estella tended the store and post office. He eventually purchased and moved the old Shingletown Hotel to Viola after 1930 and operated it there until the mid 1950s.

Photography was his passion and hobby. In 1910, he moved his photographic gallery to Anderson where he set up a first-class shop on West Center Street. He captured many outstanding images of the Mt. Lassen area during its dormant periods as well as at the peak of its most violent eruptions in 1915. He built the Mae Loomis Memorial Museum, bungalow and curio shop in memory of the couple's daughter. The museum was eventually donated to Lassen Volcanic National Park and continues to operate as the Loomis Museum.

Lassen Volcanic National Park started as two separate national monuments designated by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907: Cinder Cone National Monument and Lassen Peak National Monument. Partly because of Loomis' dramatic eruption photographs and his persistence, Lassen Volcanic National Park was established in 1926.

Loomis and his wive Estella moved to Anderson in 1899 following the birth of their daughter, Lourisa Mae. Each year after, Estella and daughter Mae would return to the family's home in Anderson prior to winter's arrival while Mr. Loomis remained in the mountains until snow forced him to walk down the mountain. Sadly, the Loomis' daughter died at a very young age.

Estella was a very accomplished artist in her own right and painted many beautiful mountain landscapes.

One story my Dad told me about Mr. Loomis took place about the same time as when Mt. Lassen began to erupt. It seems that as the volcano began to belch smoke and explode, Mr. Loomis was very near to the mountain.

He had driven there in his new car even though he had only driven or ridden horses in the past. When the mountain started to spew rock, steam and smoke, Loomis stood up in his convertible and yelled, "Get it up!" just like he would have done if he had been driving a team of horses.