John Bucher

John Bucher's land is shown on the 1877 map of Modoc County on the western shore of Upper Alkali Lake above Lake City.

"Meet the Bucher family. Very good looking and prosperous Surprise Valley pioneer family. John Bucher and his wife Laura Hanks Bucher arrived from Iowa by way of Nevada and settled in Lake City in 1866. John Bucher built the Lake City Flouring Mill in 1867 with help from George Wimer and brother-in-laws, Lewis and Abner Hanks. The timbers he used in constructing the building were cut in Soldier Creek Canyon by the Lewis and Abner. While the brothers worked, a third man with a gun stood guard against Indians. The building of hand hewn timbers held together by wooden pegs support high beams which were milled by John Bucher in 1867. In 1870 John Bucher traded his interest in the Lake City Flouring Mill to George Wimer for Wimer's ranch property, 160 acres of meadow land homesteaded by Wimer and his wife Hannah, north of Lake City which joined property owned by Bucher, and $4,000. In 1914, the ranch was sold by John Bucher to George Parman, and later became the ranch home of George's son, Harold Parman. In 1973, John Bucher took the mill back and operated it for two years and then Wimer took it over again."

The John Bucher farm was along the main road from Ft. Bidwell to Lake City (1887) MAP