County Histories

Shasta County

 by M. E. Dittmar, Redding, California.

“The best foundation for communal prosperity is diversity of resource.  A diversity of soil and climate assure a variety of agricultural, horticultural and pomological products.  A diversity of industrial raw materials and forest resources invites industrial expansion.  When a community embraces these, with a superabundance of water for power and irrigation, it offers a combination of advantages, rarely equalled (sic) and never excelled.  These are the advantages that Shasta County at the extreme head of the Sacramento Valley possesses.

“In area Shasta is the largest geographical subdivision of the Sacramento River drainage, embracing 4,050 square miles within its borders – the States of Rhode Island and Delaware could be included in this area and leave a surplus of over 750 square miles.

“The increasing importance of irrigation as an aid to intensive agriculture, speeding up the soil, is generally recognized.  As compared with dry farming and cereal crops exclusively, intensive agriculture, fruitgrowing (sic) and diversified husbandry, has increased the annual net profit from the soil many fold.  In the last analysis, water on the land is as a rule more valuable than the land itself.

“According to official daily gauging records, the average annual run-off, originating within the limits of Shasta County, is 8,100,000 acre feet – a valuable irrigation and power asset.

“Over one-sixth of the potential water-power energy of California exists within the border of Shasta County.  The development of cheap and convenient power means industrial development.  Water, for power and for irrigation, is the ‘open sesame’ of Shasta’s future.

“To utilize the power, Shasta has industrial raw materials to attract giants of capital and industry.  The industrial metals, copper, iron and zinc, already highly developed and of the first magnitude in quantity; cement materials and great beds of fine quality clays; the elements essential for the manufacture of commercial fertilizers, on a scale to supply the greater part of the North American continent with calcium nitrates – destined to entirely supersede the sodium nitrates of Chile; hardwood timber for the manufacture of furniture, and vast forests of commercial pine and fir for the lumberman – containing over 5,250,000,000 feet (board measure) standing commercial timber.

“These resources represent the foundation for an industrial community that cannot be equalled (sic) for diversity, quantity and general advantages, within a like area anywhere in the United States.

In metal mining, Shasta has been in a class by itself, leading all other countries in California for the past eighteen years.  The official statistics from 1897 – the year when her great sulphide ore bodies were first exploited – to 1914 (last year estimated) credit the county with a total output of $99,144,777, or an average of over $5,508,000 per year.

“More than two thousand men find employment at good wages, all the year round, in this great industry, and approximately $3,000,000 per annum are paid out within the borders of the county for wages and supplies.

“The great industrial metal, copper, is next to iron in importance, in the work of the world.  In the past eighteen years Shasta has produced 488,211,278 pounds of this metal.

“To Shasta County is due the credit of the first important development on the Pacific Coast, in the production of iron ore, and the manufacture of pigiron by means of the electric furnace.

“The electric furnaces at Heroult have also been utilized in the manufacture of ferro-manganese, for the steel plants of the eastern portion of the United States.  Here are grouped the iron ores, the elements essential in the manufacture of special steel, and a million horsepower of potential energy – the basis for the upbuilding of another Pittsburgh.

“In emphasizing the industrial present and future of Shasta County, we wish to make its importance apparent from the ‘home market’ viewpoint, with thousands of consumers finding remunerative and continuous occupation the producer has an advantage not frequently enjoyed, and this is particularly true where intensive cultivation is practiced, on smaller land holdings.

Deciduous fruit is grown on an extensive scale in the lower valleys and foothills.  The culture of the prune is predominant, with peaches and pears a close second.

“The olive, one of the most stable orchard products, has demonstrated its superiority in Shasta County.  Hundreds of contiguous acres are now planted to olive groves, and one of the largest groves in the State, containing 120 acres, planted more than twenty years ago, is also one of the most prolific in the State.

“The vine, in these higher but still semi-tropic latitudes, during the long sunny summer days, stores larger percentages of sugar in the grape – an advantage that will appeal to the viticulturist.

“No climatic reason exists why oranges should not be grown successfully, as the isothermal zone of the Central California valleys extends to the vicinity of Redding.  Trees a score of years old or more, planted chiefly for ornamental purposes, attest the feasibility of citrus culture.

“Cereals of all kinds are grown in the main valley – especially in the Church Creek Bottoms – and in the mountain valleys of northeastern Shasta.  A greater area is being devoted from year to year, to alfalfa, with the increase of irrigation – although three crops are usually cut without irrigation – and dairying and stock-raising are on the increase.

“The stock-grower, except where stock is wintered in the higher altitudes, does little winter feeding, utilizing instead a combination of summer and winter range, made possibly by the varying altitudes and the vast acreage of public domain in the forest reserves.

“Shasta County contains a number of thriving cities and towns.  Redding is the county seat, a beautifully located city of about four thousand people, at the extreme head of the Sacramento Valley, where mountain and vale meet.  It is the natural distributing center for a large area of Northern California, the center of industrial development, with large and prosperous business houses, excellent hotels, etc., up-to-date schools including the Shasta County high school, churches of various denominations, and all the more prominent fraternal organizations.

“The thriving towns of Anderson and Cottonwood are the chief fruit centers of Shasta, and thousands of tons of fruit, as well as agricultural products and livestock, are shipped annually from these points.

“Kennett is the center of smelting activity, and is an important industrial city of over two thousand people.

“Other towns of importance are Fall River and McArthur, in northeastern Shasta; Castella, La Moine and Delta, in the Sacramento Canyon; De Lamar, French Gulch, the old pioneer county seat of Shasta, Coram and Keswick, in the mining districts; Millville and Ono represent smaller agricultural and stock-raising communities.

“The County is traversed by many good roads, and the streams are bridged with creditable permanent structures.  The California State Highway is under construction, through the heart of Shasta, and State Highway laterals, into Trinity County to the west, connecting with the main trunk road at Redding, have been provided for.

“Shasta has excellent main line railroad facilities, with expansion in feeders and other main line construction assured in the near future.

“The beautiful in nature is blended with the utilitarian, in Shasta County.  In the Shasta Canyon, enchanting vistas of Mount Shasta and the stately domes and spires of the Castle Crags offer an ever-changing panorama of indescribable grandeur, through verdant mountain recesses cut by the crystal river.

“The beautiful McCloud in all its pristine glory, where the gamey trout abounds, and the timid doe or stately buck emerges from their leafy lanes along the river’s brink or mountain glades.  The rugged gorges of the Pit, where masjesty (sic) and power impress the visitor.  Beautiful Burney, the misty mistic (sic) falls that tumble over lava cliffs a hundred feet and more, to greet the onrush of the river – all these inspire.

“But nature, not content with her lavish bestowal of the majestic and beautiful, assays a new wonder – the awe-inspiring eruption of Mount Lassen.  In a region of fantastic natural features, the mountain long quiescent now holds the center of the stage.  Unique, as the only active crater in continental United States – remote from centers of population, that the release of its pent-up energies may fall harmless – it presents a spectacular climax in its periodical eruptions, forcing a mighty column of steam and volcanic ejecta, two miles and more in the air.  This is Shasta’s exclusive wonder, though visible for a hundred miles, and Congress recognizes its attractive powers by proposing to establish here the Lassen Volcanic National Park.  The Lassen Trail Highway to Manzanita Lake, five miles from the crater summit, presents a route of easy access for the automobilist.  The nature lover will find the lure of Shasta’s natural wonders an inspirational revelation.

“The development of the manifold resources of Shasta County assures her a great future –

“The door of opportunity stands ajar.

Industrial opportunity for capital.

Land at reasonable prices for the home-seeker.

Delightful climate, and magnificent scenery.

The foundation of prosperity is secure.

“(Note. – For more detailed information, send for booklet on Shasta County, California, free, address Shasta County Promotion and Development Association, Redding, California.  Or during the Fair at Shasta headquarters, California State Palace, P.P.I.E.)”