Herlong, California

Herlong is an unincorporated community in southern Lassen County, California located near the southeast edge of Honey Lake about convert|70|mi|km north of Reno, Nevada, and about convert|45|mi|km south of Susanville, California. The community is accessible to U.S. Route 395 via Lassen County Route A25 or Lassen County Route A26.

Herlong is located at the extreme Eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in the southeastern region of Honey Lake Valley.

Herlong is a town built to house civilian workers for Sierra Army Depot which was built in 1942. Sierra Army Depot was one of several ammunition storage facilities located far enough from the coast to be safe from Japanese attack. The site where Sierra was built also met the requirement that the depot be in a dry and isolated area for storage and safety.On a document that used to be on display at headquarters of Sierra Army Depot, it stated that Herlong was named for Captain Herlong, the first Army ordinance officer to die in WWII.

Oddly, at first, the postal stamps, money orders and equipment bore the spelling 'Hurlong' which lasted for about 5 days, before the error was corrected.

Since its beginning, the town which was built around the base has ebbed and flowed, having gone from a peak of about 5,000, in the 1950s (most of whom are civilian employees on the base), to the current population of 900.

Herlong has numerous churches. These include Bible Baptist Church, which is an Independent Baptist church, pastored by Michael Reed, an Assembly of God church, and a Southern Baptist church. The Office of Historic Preservation currently lists 62 historic properties in Herlong on its Historic Properties Data File for Lassen County.

Herlong resides in Lassen County, which is one of the last counties in the west that is still considered "open range" land. One issue with this is the occasional cow on the road, causing numerous accidents, as well as cattle grazing the lawns of the local community.

The Sierra Army Depot now serves as a munition and explosive disposal area, destroying approximately 53 million decommissioned explosive yearly.

The ZIP Code is 96113. The community is inside area code 530.

Politics

In the state legislature Herlong is located in the 1st Senate District, represented by Republican Dave Cox, and in the 3rd Assembly District, represented by Republican Rick Keene. Federally, Herlong is located in California's 4th congressional district, which has a Cook PVI of R +11 [cite web | title = Will Gerrymandered Districts Stem the Wave of Voter Unrest? | publisher = Campaign Legal Center Blog | url=http://www.clcblog.org/blog_item-85.html | accessdate = 2007-10-20] and is represented by Republican John Doolittle.

ee also

*Federal Correctional Institution, Herlong

References

External links

*Mapit-US-cityscale|40.101514|-120.2447271
*Article on Sierra Army Depot [http://users.psln.com/pete/siad.htm]
*Sierra Army Depot [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/sierra.htm]