Susanville is an unincorporated community

Unincorporated area

In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...

 in Grant County

Grant County, Oregon

Grant County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is included in the 8 county definition of Eastern Oregon. In 2010, its population was 7,445. It is named for President Ulysses S. Grant, who served as an army officer in the Oregon Territory, and at the time of the county's creation...

, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, in the Blue Mountains

Blue Mountains (Oregon)

The Blue Mountains are a mountain range in the western United States, located largely in northeastern Oregon and stretching into southeastern Washington...

 about two miles up Elk Creek from Galena

Galena, Oregon

Galena is an unincorporated community in Grant County, Oregon, United States, about 20 miles from Austin Junction in the Blue Mountains. It is on the Middle Fork John Day River on the border of the Wallowa–Whitman and Malheur National Forests...

. The place was started as a gold mining

Gold mining

Gold mining is the removal of gold from the ground. There are several techniques and processes by which gold may be extracted from the earth.-History:...

 camp in 1862 or 1864 and is now considered a ghost town

Ghost town

A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...

.

History

Susanville was originally where Galena is now. Susanville post office was established in 1888, but was moved by miners two miles up Elk Creek in 1901, and Galena post office replaced the one at Susanville's original location. The story goes that the miners of the "New Susanville" actually stole the post office, including its mailboxes, canceling stamp, inkpad. The Susanville office ran until 1952, after which mail went to Bates

Bates, Oregon

Bates is an unincorporated community in Grant County, Oregon, United States. Although it is unincorporated, it has a post office with a ZIP code of 97817.Bates was a lumber mill town until 1975 with a population of up to 400. Bates State Park opened in 2011....

.

In 1913, the 80-oz Armstrong Nugget

Armstrong Nugget

The Armstrong Nugget is a gold nugget that was found June 19, 1913, by George Armstrong, at a placer mine near Susanville in Grant County, Oregon, United States. The nugget weighs 80.4 ounces....

 was found in the Susanville area.

Susanville only had one street because Elk Creek canyon was too narrow for more. In its heyday, the camp had a store and a ten-stamp stamp mill

Stamp mill

A stamp mill is a type of mill machine that crushes material by pounding rather than grinding, either for further processing or for extraction of metallic ores. Breaking material down is a type of unit operation....

. As many as 1000 miners would come to town on Saturday nights.

External links

• Historic image of Susanville from In Search of History Expeditions
• Images of Susanville from ghosttowngallery.com

44.7132124°N 118.7838464°W