I am a planner. If you’ve been reading this blog or know me personally, you already know this. When it comes to adventures, I research for hours. I get almost as much pleasure out of the planning of travel and adventures as I do the travel and adventure itself. That said, every once in a while, I find a little roadside adventure that was never on my radar. Such is the case with Old Shasta in the small town of Shasta, California.

On a quick trip to Redding, California, I visited the Shasta Dam and Whiskey Town Lake. As it happened, along the way I drove by old and no longer inhabited buildings. Curious, I pulled off to investigate. And, it turns out, I inadvertently discovered Shasta Ghost Town, a very small state park. (How cool is that? You know I love state parks). Locals, as I understand it, refer to it as Old Shasta.

A river cutting through mountains. Vantage point is the top of the dam which is the start of the river.
Looking down the Shasta Dam wall as water comes through.
Sign that reads Whiskey Town Lake with the lake behind it.

Old Shasta: A Brief History

Old Shasta began life as an old gold mining town. It was the center of commerce in the area. A man named Pierson B. Reading was the first to find gold in the area in 1848 and as gold hunters flocked to the area, it became known as Reading Springs. By 1849 several hundred miners were camping on the hillside as they looked to strike it rich. In 1850, the town was renamed Shasta. And within two years more than $2.5 million of gold had passed through the town.

In December 1852, the first of two fires only six months apart destroyed the town twice, each time destroying all 70 businesses on Main Street. As a result, the town resurrected a third time but, having learned their lesson, this time used bricks for the walls and iron for the shutters.

Alas, it didn’t take long before the gold dried up and, by the late 1860s, Shasta saw a decline. Then when the Pacific Railroad put its terminal in Redding rather than Shasta, merchants moved way. In 1888, the county seat was moved from Shasta to Redding and the buildings of brick went into a state of disrepair.

But in the 1920s several individuals and historical societies deciding the save the “boom to bust” town and buildings. So land was purchased by an individual; additional land was purchased with California State Parks got involved. In 1950, the Courthouse Museum opened.

Old Shasta: What You See Today

I visited on a Wednesday. Sadly, the downside of an impulse stop, without the benefit or research and planning, is that the Courthouse Museum was closed as it’s only opened Thursdays thru Sundays. So the wealth of information and artifacts, aside from the signage in front of the brick buildings, I missed out on.

Still, the easy, free roadside stop took less than an hour and was fun. And I still learned a bit about a place I never even knew existed before that moment.

Here is what I saw.

Old Shasta: the Photos

Remains of old red brick buildings. You can see walls but no roofs. Grass grows in them now.
Remnants of the old buildings. The metal roofs were dismantle for scrap for the World War II efforts.
Old brick building from across the street. Sign reads Bull Bakers & Co.
The Bull Bakers & Co. building cost $15,000 when built in 1853. At the time it was the most expensive building in Shasta.
Old wooden building with a sign that says "Blacksmith" on the front.
The Blacksmith shop with various tools scattered around. No doubt it was a busy place back in the day.
Front side of a two story thin red brick building.
Being a fan of Dan Brown (remember the Da Vinci Code?), I found this building the most intriguing. It’s the old Masonic Lodge in California. It was dedicated on December 27, 1854 (after the original building was destroyed by fire in 1853; sadly all the possessions inside also succumbed).
A red brick building with the sign "Courthouse Museum" on the front.
Finally, the old courthouse now serves as the museum. Of the buildings, it is the only one you can go into and it was closed when I was there.

Be Open

So what lesson can be learned by my little roadside adventure? It’s important to be open to taking time to make unexpected, unplanned stops in your travels. Because you just never know what you’ll discover.

What fun things have you unexpectedly found on your travels? Would love to hear about them.

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