Towns of Mount Lassen (CA) (Images of America)

The book description here does not accurately describe what is actually being sold. This is *not* a book about "Towns of Mount Lassen" (i.e., Lassen Peak) but rather an extremely thin volume (127 pages) of hundreds (maybe even thousands) of random, old-timey, black and white photos.The only true town that seems to be mentioned is "Lyonsville". No information - at all- about when this town was founded, why it was founded, how long it existed, specifics of where it was located, or even whether or not it still exists. Just basically NOTHING. The other "towns" mentioned in the book appear to be not much more than logging camps, mining claims, or ranches.All of the photos have some sort of meaningless description underneath, or general specifics of *where* the photos were taken, or *why* these photo were significant enough to be included in this book. The caption doesn't even list the year (even a range of years would have been nice) the photos were taken.One example is a photo of an old guy sitting on a porch with the caption "Jack Turner acquired a huge amount of property around Lyonsville. His 101 ranch was famous because he painted "101" on the barn roof." No historical backgound, no explanation of if (or if not) "Jack Turner" was important to Lyonsville. NOTHING.Another example is the photo of a cave: "This photo shows the caves that spread around the Lassen area. The caves are big. Some of the caves had ceilings with black soot." No information about *what* kind of caves they might be (from the photo I am guessing this is a lava-tube cave), *where* these caves are located, *if* they are still accessible, *why* they were important enough to the area to be included in this book. Just NO information whatsoever.I would suggest that the title of this book should be changed from "Towns of Mount Lassen" to "Plethora of random old-timey photos of the Lassen Peak area. Maybe." This second title would be a lot more accurate.If you are charmed by random old photos that may - or may not - have anything to do with the Lassen area - impossible to tell either by the photos themselves, or by the captions under the photos - then I would say "go for it".If you are looking to find solid historical information about the actual physical towns that once existed in the Lassen area in the past (and may - or may not - still be there today, the book doesn't say) I suggest that you give it a pass, and look elsewhere.Had the book's description been accurate, I would never had purchased it.I give it two stars only because someone took a great deal of time and trouble to find all of these old photos, and put this book together. I can admire that, if only a little.If you like old photos, this book *might* be for you.It definitely wasn't for me.