Peter Lassen

Peter Lassen was born in Farum, Denmark, and immigrated in 1830 to Boston, Massachusetts. Born to Johanne Sophie Westergaard and Lars Nielsen, Peter was baptized at the age of one week on December 7, 1800.{{Cite book|title=Uncle Peter: the story of Peter Lassen and the Lassen Trail|last=Lassen|first=R.W.|publisher=Ox Shoe Publications|year=1990|edition=1st|location=Paradise, CA}} The patronymic surname Larsen, meaning son of Lars, was applied in his naming and was common among Danish farmers at that time. Lassen used several different spellings while living in Denmark and in Copenhagen, sometimes preferring to be called Peter Larsen Farum, after his birthplace.

When he was seventeen, Lassen moved to Kalundborg to learn blacksmithing.{{cite web|url=http://www.lcoe.org/Events/History-Day-3rd-Grade/Curriculum-Resources/Peter-Lassen/|title=Lassen County Office of Education - Peter Lassen|website=www.lcoe.org|access-date=2016-09-06|archive-date=2016-09-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916190313/http://www.lcoe.org/Events/History-Day-3rd-Grade/Curriculum-Resources/Peter-Lassen/}} He apprenticed under his uncle, Christian Nielsen{{Cite book|title=Lassen: His life and legacy|last=Swartzlow|first=R.J.|publisher=Loomis Museum Association|year=1964|edition=First|location=Mineral, CA}} until 1823, when he moved to Copenhagen to work under a master blacksmith named Sigersted.

In 1840, he immigrated to California and became a rancher.Franklin D. Scott (1981) Peter Lassen: Danish Pioneer of California (Southern California Quarterly Vol. 63, No. 2, pp. 113-136){{cite web|url=http://denstoredanske.dk/Geografi_og_historie/USA_og_Nordamerika/USA_ca._1770-1920/Peter_Lassen|title=Peter Lassen

|publisher=Den Store Danske|access-date=December 25, 2015}} Peter Lassen traveled from Keytesville, Missouri, to Westport, Missouri, a "common place of rendezvous for overland parties". The expedition Lassen joined was made up of missionaries and adventurers, some on their way to California; others headed to the Columbia River basin in Oregon.

Lassen met the ship Lausanne on the Willamette River in Oregon. He sailed on July 3, 1840, boarding for passage to Bodega Bay, in Sonoma County, California. The travelers were invited to touch land in California at Fort Ross, and stayed on there until they could procure some horses to travel to Sutter's Fort.{{Cite book|last=Bancroft|first=Hubert Howe|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofcal04bancroft|title=Bancroft's Works: History of California, Vol IV|publisher=A.L. Bancroft & Company|year=1886|location=San Francisco|page=121}}

Lassen arrived at Sutter's Fort in August 1840, with William Wiggins, who had traveled with him from Westport (now Kansas City, Missouri), over land and by sea for nearly fifteen months starting in May 1839. John Sutter happily welcomed the men and traveled with them from his colony, known at the time as New Helvetia (meaning New Switzerland), to Yerba Buena and Alviso, California, in a small sailboat.{{cite book|title=The Life of Peter Lassen|last=Lathrop|first=G.R.|publisher=California State University|year=1974|location=Long Beach|chapter=The California Pioneer|type=History Master's Thesis}}

While it is likely he was working as a blacksmith during his early years in California, Lassen traveled to Santa Cruz in 1841, where he oversaw the construction of a sawmill owned by Isaac Graham on Zayante Creek.{{Cite book|title=California Government and forestry|last=Clar|first=C. Raymond|publisher=Division of Forestry, Department of Natural Resources State of California|year=1959|volume=1|location=Sacramento|page=36|hdl=2027/mdp.39015006895208}} Lassen was paid 100 mules for his efforts. From the winter of 1840- 1841 Lassen returned to San Jose, with another pioneer blacksmith, William "Guillermo" Gulnac; the two travelling to the upper San Joaquin Valley in the Spring of 1841. In July 1842, the men arrived at "Rancho Campo de los Franceses" but just missed connecting with French-Canadian trappers who worked for the Hudson's Bay Company. Lassen pushed on with his livestock, and instead spent the next few years camped in a hut along the Cosumnes River, working as a travelling blacksmith.

In 1848{{Cite book|title=The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840–1860|last=Unruh, Jr.|first=John D.|title-link=The Plains Across (book)|publisher=(University of Illinois Press)|orig-date=1979|date=1993|isbn=0-252-06360-0 |page=353}} Lassen established the Lassen Cutoff of the California Trail, which left the main trail near the modern-day Rye Patch Reservoir and crossed a desolate section of what is now northwestern Nevada, including the Black Rock Desert. His cutoff continued to Goose Lake in northeastern California, and then followed the Pit River into California's Central Valley. Portions of this trail were particularly arduous, and many of its early travelers greatly regretted choosing it. The route was extensively traveled during the years 1848 to 1853, but because of the hardships of the route, the trail was little used thereafter. The Applegate Trail also traveled from Rye Patch Reservoir to Goose Lake. (The Applegate Trail was intended as a safer alternative to the main route of the Oregon Trail, and it continued into Oregon's Willamette Valley.){{cite web|url=http://www.sierranevadageotourism.org/content_detail.php?uid=sie8F1396B38D128B284|title=Lassen Emigrant Trail|publisher=National Geographic|date=2015|access-date=December 25, 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://www.sierracollege.edu/ejournals/jsnhb/v2n2/trails-Lassen.html|title=Lassen Trail|publisher=Sierra College|author=Tim I. Purdy|date=2009|access-date=December 25, 2015|archive-date=November 12, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151112200530/http://www.sierracollege.edu/ejournals/jsnhb/v2n2/trails-Lassen.html}} The Lassen Cutoff is a California Historical Landmark marker No. 763 and 678.{{cite ohp|678|Lassen Emigrant Trail Marker #678|2012-10-07}}{{cite ohp|763|Lassen Emigrant Trail Marker #763|2012-10-07}}

John D. Unruh, Jr., writes of Lassen's first attempt at using his cutoff, rescued from disaster by a group of well-supplied emigrants from Oregon who helped him reach his ranch:

File:Wpdms california trail3.png

Here the wily Dane orchestrated a meeting wherein the emigrants supposedly endorsed him as a guide and warmly praised his cutoffs. This deceptive endorsement was rushed eastward to be printed in newspapers and influence credulous forty-niners hell-bent for the gold fields. Planning carefully, Lassen also dispatched agents to divert forty-niners onto the cutoff and to set up trail advertisements (including a signboard at Lassen Meadows, where the Applegate Trail branched off from the Humboldt River) with the reassuring message that the diggings were a mere 110 miles ahead ... [A later] emigration trustingly followed their lead, many foolishly discarding surplus provisions on the assumption that only 110 miles remained. The suffering of those choosing the Lassen Cutoff was severe, for it proved to be some 200 miles longer than either the Carson or Truckee routes.

Lassen was granted in 1844 the {{convert|22206|acre|adj=on}} Rancho Bosquejo Mexican land grant in Tehama County by Governor Manuel Micheltorena. On his fourth expedition to the west, John C. Fremont recorded in his journal that in the spring of 1846 he visited and stayed at the Lassen ranch.{{Cite journal|last=Swartzlow|first=Ruby Johnson|date=1939|title=Peter Lassen, Northern California's Trail-Blazer|journal=California Historical Society Quarterly|volume=18|issue=4|pages=291–314|doi=10.2307/25160837|jstor=25160837|issn=0008-1175}} Fremont noted that Lassen had brought into cultivation wheat, grapes and cotton. In 1855 Lassen moved to the Honey Lake region, where he prospected and served in the office of surveyor of the unofficial Nataqua Territory.{{cite book|url=http://users.psln.com/~pete/lassen_peter.htm|title=From the Lassen County Almanac: An Historical Encyclopedia|publisher=Lassen County History and Culture|author=Tim I. Purdy|date=2002|access-date=December 25, 2015|archive-date=March 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305114515/http://users.psln.com/~pete/lassen_peter.htm}}{{cite journal|first=William Newell Jr.|last=Davis|title=The Territory of Nataqua: an Episode in Pioneer Government East of the Sierra|journal=California Historical Society Quarterly|volume=1|issue=3|date=September 1942|pages=225–28|doi=10.2307/25161008|jstor=25161008}}Some contemporary sources spelled Lassen's name "Lawson" (not to be confused with 1849 gold-country map-maker [https://www.raremaps.com/gallery/detail/45039/lawsons-map-from-actual-survey-of-the-gold-silver-quicks-lawson J. T. Lawson]), including Fremont guide Kit Carson in his memoir.

File:Peter Lassen mindesten.jpg, Denmark.]]

Lassen was murdered on April 26, 1859 in Clapper Canyon (then known as Black Rock Canyon) in the Black Rock Mountains as he was traveling in the area (later known as Hardin City, Nevada), to prospect for silver.{{r|Fairfield 1916|page=[https://archive.org/details/fairfieldspionee01fair/page/171 171]}} He was traveling along with Edward Clapper and Americus Wyatt; Clapper was killed in the same incident, but Wyatt escaped. The circumstances surrounding his death remain mysterious. According to Wyatt, Lassen and Clapper were shot by an unseen sniper while breaking camp.{{cite web|url=http://www.nevadaoutdoorschool.org/InterpretiveKits/LC/LCHistory.pdf|title=Lassen - Clapper Murder Site|publisher=Nevada Outdoor School|access-date=December 25, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160106015839/http://www.nevadaoutdoorschool.org/InterpretiveKits/LC/LCHistory.pdf|archive-date=January 6, 2016}}

At the time the culprits were widely considered to be Northern Paiute, who were then in a state of unrest, which would soon lead to the Paiute War. However, Wyatt himself, Pit River Indians, and disgruntled emigrants who followed the Lassen trail, have also been suspected.[http://www.cagenweb.com/lassen/his.htm#Pete Lassen County Historian] accessed 2008-01-25. In particular, an investigation at the time disclosed that none of the supplies of Lassen, Clapper or Wyatt had been taken; in the perception of the investigator, leaving the supplies was not normal conduct for a Native American raiding party at that time,{{Cite book|title=Sand in a whirlwind: The Paiute Indian War of 1860|last=Egan|first=Ferol|publisher=(University of Nevada Press)|year=1985|isbn=0-87417-097-4|pages=23–24}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=IobrkJ6uX6kC Partial online text of book] accessed 2008-01-25. and, as a result, Wyatt himself has been suspected as the murderer of Lassen and Clapper.

William Weatherlow, the Susanville resident, leader of the Honey Lake Rangers, and close friend of Isaac Roop was known to be in the area and was leading the prospecting party Lassen, Clapper, and Wyatt were in search of. Weatherlow was thought by local Indian Agent Major Dodge to have been the murderer under order from Isaac Roop for political gain as Lassen was a prominent and leading candidate for the provisional governorship of the forming Sierra Nevada Territory.{{r|Fairfield 1916|p=334-338}} Peter Lassen's grave is in Susanville in Lassen County, California, along the eastern foothills of the Sierra Nevada.{{cite web|url=http://www.sierranevadageotourism.org/content/peter-lassens-grave-no-565-california-historical-landmark/sie7259F241EDBE1C2BF|title=Peter Lassen's Grave|publisher=National Geographic|date=2015|access-date=December 25, 2015}} Peter Lassen's Grave at 2550 Wingfield Road, Susanville, California is a California Historical Landmark No. 565.{{cite ohp|565|Peter Lassen's Grave #565|2012-10-07}}

Banner Lassen Medical Center and Lassen College in Susanville,{{cite book|last=Gannett|first=Henry|title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ|year=1905|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n131 182]}} Lassen National Forest, Lassen Peak,{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=405lAAAAIBAJ&pg=775%2C5627048|title=Over the Sierra|work=Indian Valley Record|date=May 30, 1940|access-date=7 May 2015|author=Brown, Thomas P.|page=3}} and Lassen Volcanic National Park are named in his honor. In addition there is a Scout troop in his hometown of Farum called Peter Lassen Troop.

Michael Witney portrayed Lassen in a 1968 episode, "The Other Side of the Mountain", of the television anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Robert Taylor.{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0556852/|title="The Other Side of the Mountain" on Death Valley Days|publisher=Internet Movie Database|access-date=December 4, 2018}}

• California Historical Landmarks in Lassen County

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite book|last=Fairfield|first=Asa Merrill|date=1916|title=Fairfield's Pioneer History of Lassen County, California|url=https://archive.org/details/fairfieldspionee01fair|quote=Death of Peter Lassen.|access-date=2015-12-20|publisher=H. S. Crocker}}

}}

• Johnston, Ken (2012) Legendary Truths, Peter Lassen and His Gold Rush Trail in Fact and Fable (Pronghorn Press) {{ISBN|978-1-932636-93-2}}

{{Commons category}}

• {{Internet Archive author|sname=Peter Lassen}}
• [http://www.cagenweb.com/lassen/his.htm#Pete Biographical statement by Lassen County historian]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080725130134/http://www.canvocta.org/Lassenthread.html Peter Lassen and His Trail] at California/Nevada chapter of the Oregon-California Trails Association (CANVOCTA)
• [http://www.westernstarlodge.org/wiki/Peter_Lassen Peter Lassen at WesternStarWiki] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728173158/http://www.westernstarlodge.org/wiki/Peter_Lassen|date=2011-07-28 }}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lassen, Peter}}

Category:1800 births

Category:1859 deaths

Category:People murdered in 1859

Category:American blacksmiths

Category:American murder victims

Category:Black Rock Desert

Category:Danish emigrants

Category:Immigrants to Mexico

Category:History of Tehama County, California

Category:Naturalized citizens of Mexican California

Category:Pre-statehood history of Nevada

Category:Ranchers from California

Category:People from Furesø Municipality

Category:American surveyors

Category:Unsolved murders in the United States