Standish, California

Standish is an unincorporated community in Lassen County, California. It is located 2.25mi southwest of Litchfield, at an elevation of 4049 feet (1234 m).Standish is the northern terminus of the County Route A3 (Standish Buntingville Road) and the junction with U.S. Route 395.Standish Hall is a registered historic place.The name honors Miles Standish.HistoryThe community was laid out in 1897. Standish was established in the 1890s, as the second development of the Associated Colonies of New York, whose job was to "create utopian communities in the West". As a part of this project, Standish was designed based on the beliefs of Myles Standish, and the economic structure was designed under the ideas promoted by LDS leader Brigham Young. The design of the town was supposed to model European communities which had the majority of residents leaving the village during the day in order to work in the nearby fields. When the town was built, it was expected that most of the residents would be farmers with houses separated by at least one hundred feet. In autumn 1897, the Associated Colonies purchased the properties of Edward T. Purser and his Susan River Irrigation system. Afterwards, the Associated Colonies recruited local people to form the Honey Lake Valley Colonial Club; which would go on to design the Standish Colony. A 240-acre site was chosen to build the town on February 5, 1898. It was on February 18, 1898 that the Colonial Irrigation Company of the Honey Lake Valley was incorporated in order to irrigate water for the crops. However, legal problems with the system and water rights caused delay in its operation and the development of Standish; after several legal battles, the courts placed restraints on their irrigation rights. On January 14, 1905, the courts finally ordered the auction of the Colonial Irrigation Company. The post office opened in 1899, having been transferred from Datura.