About the town » Leavitt, Lassen County, California, United States

Leavitt is an unincorporated community in Lassen County, California, United States. It is located alongside the Southern Pacific Railroad 7 miles (11 km) east of Susanville, and 7 miles west of Litchfield, at an elevation of 4,104 feet (1,251 m).Leavitt was named for Benjamin Hanson Leavitt (1834–1918), a pioneer rancher and lumberman who came from the state of Maine, born to a father who was a Maine farmer and a mother from New Brunswick, Canada, and who settled in Lassen County in 1864. Benjamin Leavitt was a descendant of Samuel Leavitt of Exeter, New Hampshire.Benjamin Leavitt engineered the Honey Lake Valley irrigation system, including Leavitt Lake. Leavitt also named nearby Clinton, California, for his hometown of Clinton in Kennebec County, Maine. (The town was renamed Leavitt Lake in 1973 when house construction began there.) Benjamin Leavitt was married to Celara Cleveland (Edwards) Leavitt, born in Massachusetts.A post office at Leavitt was established in October 1914, and named after May F. Leavitt, the first postmaster. It was discontinued in December 1920.