Shasta State Historic Park Tour

Placards posted by each of the brick storefronts detail the history of the town.

In sum, Shasta occupied a strategic location in 1850s California. Reading Springs was located 5 miles from where Pierson B. Reading discovered gold. By 1849, gold in the nearby streams ran out. Miners moved to sites in Siskiyou and Trinity Mountains. But because of the region’s rugged terrain, Shasta was as far west as stagecoaches and freight wagons could travel. It became the starting point for the pack trains that supplied the miners. Swiftly, the community of tents and temporary structures grew into a town with bakeries, saloons, a grocery, a brewery, and a bookstore.

Placards by the storefronts detail the history of the town

In sum, Shasta rebuilt its commercial district in brick after fire twice devastated the wooden town. In 1872,the railroad arrived in Redding. As Redding became the new commercial center for Northern California, Shasta's population declined. By the 1930s, the structures on this street were falling apart.

Frank Litsch, a German native, arrived in Shasta in 1853. Trained as a baker, he also mined and bartended before establishing the Litsch General Store in 1873. The building he chose had been constructed in 1856 with fireproof elements such as brick, iron shutters, stout roof beams, and a soil covered roof. Most canned goods sold at Litsch's store for $0.25; whisky ranged in price from $0.75 to $1.75 a bottle. Litsch's Sacramento- and San Francisco-based suppliers handled his gold dust shipments.

Henry Blumb operated a bakery, with saloon, from 1878 to 1919. The building was reconstructed in 1992 to match its 1880s appearance. Schoolchildren and weekend visitors often enjoy historic baking in the faithfully reconstructed brick oven.

Established in 1855

The barn was built in the late 1850s by Thomas and Mary Coyle. It was used to shelter horses at the Holland House Hotel, on the road to Oregon. In 1959, its original site was flooded by the construction of Trinity Dam, so the barn was dismantled then reassembled at Shasta State Historic Park.

Mining and agricultural machinery on display includes arrastra stones that pulverized gold-laden quartz; a core drill, which allowed hard-rock miners to extract mineral samples from underground; a feed wagon used to feed farm animals; a hay baler, and a hay press.

The Courthouse museum includes many historical exhibits. Visitors can view the Boggs collection of art, assembled by a former resident; tour an entertainment room, set up with period furniture; walk down a corridor lined with transportation exhibits; and hear the narrative of townsfolk, including a succcessful former slave and a less-lucky jail inmate