What Happened to the Termo Store?

The Mystery Between 2023 and 2026

As I was making my way back home from Nevada on a long road trip, my attention was immediately grabbed by some burned-out wreckage on the side of Highway 395 near Ravendale. This is the stretch of U.S. 395 in northern Lassen County, California, around the Termo/Ravendale area. At first, I had driven right past it while looking over at the wreckage, but the carnage startled me so much that I pulled a U-turn and went back to investigate. If anyone has ever driven this stretch of highway, then you know this is a highly desolate area with hardly any traffic. That made slowing down and whipping a U-turn pretty easy! In fact, the whole time I was there investigating the site, only two cars passed by in about an hour. Truly desolate, lonely, and deserted.

The town of Termo was founded in June 1900. It was given its unusual name because it temporarily served as the “terminus,” or end of the line, for the Nevada-California-Oregon Railway. On June 1, 1900, the first train arrived at Termo, where stagecoaches met passengers and carried them farther north toward Alturas. By 1902, as the railway continued pushing north, Termo began losing some of its importance and slowly started fading into what would eventually become a near-ghost town. In 1937, much of Termo was destroyed by fire and later rebuilt. For decades afterward, the Termo Store operated as a local landmark, general store, and roadside fuel stop. I have not been able to find a definite record showing exactly when the store first opened, but it remained in operation for many years. Around sometime in 2006 gasoline sales were reportedly discontinued because of rising fuel-related costs. And in 2023 the last known photograph of the store still standing (above) was taken

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2020: The Termo Store was photographed still standing.

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So what happened between 2023-2026?

As I parked and got out of my truck, I was quickly taken aback by the level of destruction. It looked like a dystopian, nuclear, post-apocalyptic scene ripped right out of the movies. Very Road Warrior-esque indeed! There was a huge pile of burned debris and what appeared to be the remnants of an old roadside gas station and possibly a general store. Twisted and tangled steel, stripped and damaged gas pumps, partially standing brick chimneys, and all kinds of scorched appliances littered the debris field. There were also old above-ground petroleum storage tanks on the property. Surrounding the main site were several smaller abandoned buildings that had not burned. One of them appeared to be a restroom building, probably for roadside travelers who once stopped there for fuel, snacks, or supplies.

Investigating this place by myself felt surreal. As I walked through what appeared to be some small abandoned living quarters or support buildings, I kept getting startled by the sounds of clanking metal outside. Because I was the only soul around, it really started to freak me out and made the hair on my arms stand up.

“Did some entity follow me home from the prison I just investigated?”

It turns out there was a slight breeze that day, and every time the wind blew, it rattled some piece of hanging metal debris outside. Once I realized it was just the wind, I had to laugh at myself for letting  my imagination get the better of me. After all , Michael of Forsaken Fragments,  who just finished the investigation of the Haunted Nevada State Prison, scared by a little wind. Geesh! However, there was another thing that made me a little bit cautious. Because there clearly looked to have been some kind of fire at the site, I was leery about walking through the abandoned structures alone. Granted these outer perimeter structures did not appear to be fire damaged, but you can never take anything for granted. But as I often heard said:

You have to risk it for the biscuit! LOL!

There was also the risk of being confronted by some squatter who might suddenly appear from behind a piece of old furniture or some hidden corner and scare the hell out of me. I did have personal protection with me as a last resort  but it was still a little unnerving being out there alone. So I crept slowly along keeping my head on a swivel and announcing my presence to anyone or any THING that might reside there. Nothing or no one ever came out during my investigating as I made my way through the devasted site.

After getting home and doing a lot of research, I found out that this mysterious site, left in ruins along the highway, was once the Termo General Store and Fuel Stop property at 713-785 Highway 395. It was not a modern Shell- or Chevron-style filling station by any means. It appears to have been an old country store and service stop with fuel storage, serving highway travelers, ranchers, and people connected to the surrounding area. Well now I had a name and an exact locfation for what once stood there! Things are looking up!

But what happened? That’s what I really

wanted to know!

Was there a huge forest fire?

Did the store catch fire by it self?

Was there some kind of explosion?

A Mystery in the Making

Sometime after 2023, and by my 2026 visit, the main building had been almost completely destroyed, leaving behind two masonry chimneys, burned framing, abandoned living quarters old gasoline pumps, twisted scorched steel, petroleum tanks, and a large debris field. So far, I have not been able to find a documented date or confirmed cause for the destruction.

Was It the Pinecone Fire?

There was a major wildfire in the area known as the R-8 Pinecone Fire. The fire ignited on August 26, 2020, near Highway 395 and Termo Grasshopper Road. It eventually burned approximately 567 acres of high-desert brush, grass, and timber. At first, this looked like a possible explanation and I totally ready to accept this explanation even though it would have ended by conspiracy theory thoughts. However, the Termo Store was photographed by a blogger still standing in October 2020 two months after the fire so the Pinecone Fire did not destroy the building.  That rules out at least one possibility. So score one for my mystery loving brain!

Environmental Cleanup?

According to the California state records they identify this location as an environmental cleanup site connected to historic petroleum contamination.  That raises another possibility. Some of what I saw may have been altered or disturbed over the years by environmental cleanup work connected to old fuel storage and petroleum contamination. However, standing there and looking at the twisted metal, scorched debris, burned timbers, and surviving brick chimneys, it certainly looked to me like the property had experienced a major fire at some point. And that is where the mystery remains. Was the Termo Store destroyed by a later structure fire that went unreported? Was part of the site deliberately demolished during cleanup? Was it a combination of fire, abandonment, weather, and environmental work? I honestly don’t know yet. After standing among the burned remnants, surrounded by the silence of the high desert and the soft sound of the wind rattling old metal, you can’t help but feel like something bad happened here. Maybe there is a perfectly ordinary explanation…..”Maybe there isn’t.”

I’ll also be putting together a short TikTok video and a YouTube video with even more images that I did not share here. So if you want to see more of the site and get a better look at what remains, be sure to check those out as well.

My YouTube link and TikTok links coming soon…

And if you enjoy abandoned places, roadside oddities, paranormal investigations, and forgotten history like this, please like, subscribe, and follow Forsaken Fragments for more.

This was not the first time I had stopped to investigate a place that seemed forgotten by time. You can read about my Spring Creek Ranch Motel here:

The Spring Creek Ranch Motel Sign: A Forsaken Fragment

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But for now, there seems to be a missing chapter in the public record of the Termo Store.

A missing Forsaken Fragment…

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