Geological Survey Bulletin 614 Guidebook of the Western United States: Part D. The Shasta Route and Coast Line

California, known as the Golden State, is next to the largest State in the Union. It is 780 miles in length and about 250 miles in average width and has a total area of 156,092 square miles, being nearly equal in size to New England, New York, and Pennsylvania combined. The population of California in 1910 was 2,377,549, or about one-tenth that of the Eastern States named. The area covered by public-land surveys is 123,910 square miles, or nearly 80 per cent of the State, and 21 per cent of the State was unappropriated and unreserved July 1, 1914.

Along the State's 1,000 miles of bold coast line there are comparatively few indentations. The bays of San Diego and San Francisco are excellent harbors, but they are exceptional.

The climate of California varies greatly from place to place. Along the coast in northern California it is moist and equable. Around San Francisco Bay a moderate rainfall is confined almost wholly to the winter, and the range in temperature is comparatively small. In parts of southern California typical desert conditions prevail. The great interior valley is characterized by moderate to scant winter rain fall and hot, dry summers. Snow rarely falls except in the high mountains, where—as, for example, in the Sierra Nevada—so much of it may accumulate as to interfere with railway traffic.

Forests cover 22 per cent of the area of the State and have been estimated to contain 200,000 million feet of timber. They are notable for the large size of their trees, especially for the huge dimensions attained by two species of redwood—Sequoia washingtoniana (or gigantea), the well-known "big tree" of the Sierra Nevada, and Sequoia sempervirens, the "big tree" of the Coast Range. Some of these giant trees fortunately have been preserved by the Government or through private generosity against the attacks of the lumberman. The 21 national forests in California have a total net area of 40,600 square miles, or about one-fourth of the State's area. The national parks in the State are Yosemite (1,124 square miles), Sequoia (252 square miles), and General Grant (4 square miles). The national monuments in the State are the Cabrillo, Cinder Cone, Devil Postpile, Lassen Peak, Muir Woods, and Pinnacles, and there are bird reserves at Klamath Lake, East Park, Farallon, and Clear Lake.

Agriculture is a large industry in California, and with the introduction of more intensive cultivation its importance is increasing rapidly. In the variety and value of its fruit crops California has no rival in the United States, if indeed in the world. Its products range from pineapples and other semitropical fruits in the south to pears, peaches, and plums in the north, but it is to oranges and other citrus fruits and to wine grapes that California owes its agricultural supremacy.

During the season from November 1, 1913, to October 31, 1914, California produced 48,548 carloads of citrus fruit, 42,473,000 gallons of wine, and 12,450 tons of walnuts and almonds.

Of its mineral products, petroleum ranks first in total value and gold next. California's output of petroleum in 1914 was valued at $48,466,096, about 25 per cent of the world's yield, and its output of gold in that year at about $21,000,000. In the production of both petroleum and gold California leads all other States in the Union.

California was formerly a part of Mexico but in 1848 was ceded to the United States, and on September 9, 1850, was admitted to the Union as a State. Its history is full of stirring and romantic episodes and should not be neglected by the visitor desirous of understanding the spirit of the land.

SHEET No. 8 (click on image for an enlargement in a new window)

The same Cretaceous conglomerate seen at Ashland continues through the mountain and reappears near Hornbrook (see sheet 8, p. 64), where it has been washed to some extent for gold. Directly ahead from Hornbrook may be seen Black Mountain, whose summit is a mass of lava resting on Cretaceous strata that dip toward the east.

A few miles south of Hornbrook, at Klamathon, the railroad crosses Klamath River, which rises in the lake region east of the main ridge of the Cascade Range and is extensively utilized near its head for irrigation. Along the course of the Klamath through the Cascade and Coast ranges there are numerous power sites, and at some of these about 5,130 horsepower has already been developed. Klamath River has not the beautiful clearness of the Rogue and the Umpqua.

Passing Thrall, Ager, and Snowdon in succession the railroad climbs to a divide overlooking Shasta Valley and affording an excellent view of Mount Shasta. In making this ascent it passes over a series of shales, tuffs, and lavas of Miocene age in the order in which they were deposited. From Ager a stage line runs up Klamath River to Klamath Hot Springs, formerly known as Shovel Creek Springs, a resort noted for its fishing and mud baths.¹

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¹The trip through the canyon affords a cross section of the greater portion of the Cascade Range, but, as in the Columbia River section, only lavas are to be seen. A small volcano which at some unknown date broke out in the canyon dammed the river with its lava. In the lake so formed there lived and died countless numbers of the microscopic plants known as diatoms—little organisms possessing siliceous shells, or more properly skeletal parts, that fit together much like a pill box and its cover. The white or very light earth that may be seen along the stage road is composed almost entirely of these delicate siliceous skeletons, which when examined with a strong microscope are found to be of marvelous delicacy and beauty. This material, diatomaceous or infusorial earth, is used as a polishing or scouring agent.

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From Montague a short branch line runs to Yreka, near which in early days a number of placer mines and later a number of lode mines were successfully worked for gold. A short distance south of Montague, near Shasta River, a salt well was once operated but is now abandoned. The brine was obtained from the Cretaceous sandstone which underlies much of Shasta Valley.

Scattered over Shasta Valley are many small knolls of lava and tuff, which appear to be, in part at least, the products of minor and local eruptions that broke through the Cretaceous beds, each vent contributing its little pile of material. Such feeble and diffuse volcanic activity is in marked contrast with the vigorous outbursts that built up the great cone of Shasta. On the right (west) as Gazelle is approached the traveler may trace along the hills the nearly horizontal line of the Yreka ditch, completed in 1856 to bring water to the rich placer mines near Yreka, but now used for irrigation near Gazelle.

Shasta Valley is devoted chiefly to stock raising, and about 700 carloads of cattle are shipped annually from Gazelle station. In a valley on the right (west), half a mile beyond Gazelle, is exposed some gray limestone containing fossil shells of Devonian age. This and other fossil-bearing limestones in the region afford evidence that strata of Paleozoic age lie under the Cretaceous rocks of Shasta Valley and form the mountains to the west. These strata are cut by many bodies of intrusive rock.

Crossing Shasta River the railroad leaves the dry plains and near Edgewood enters the wooded foothills northwest of Mount Shasta. These hills are apparently composed in large part of morainal material left by some vanished glacier. The road ascends Boles Creek to Weed, where the main line is joined by the branch that extends through Klamath Falls to Kirk, Oreg.

Weed is within the forest belt of Mount Shasta. Here are large sawmills which each day cut up about 125 carloads of logs, chiefly yellow and sugar pine, making 87,500 feet of lumber. Much of this is manufactured at Weed into doors, window sashes, and box shooks (boards cut to size, ready to be nailed).

On the left near the summit is Sugar Loaf (Pl. XX, A, p. 62), a remarkable conical peak of solid lava (andesite) without any fragmental material whatever in its make-up. The thick pasty lava of which it is composed bulged up directly over the volcanic vent without explosive eruption. The andesite of Sugar Loaf is remarkable for its prominent black crystals of the mineral hornblende.

PLATE XX.—A. SUGAR LOAF, NEAR WEST BASE OF MOUNT SHASTA, CAL. A lava cone without cinders is its make-up or a crater on its summit. Photograph by Weister Co., Portland. B. MOSS BRAE FALLS, NEAR SHASTA SPRINGS, CAL.

On the divide between Edgewood and Sisson is much loose stony material that consists largely of fragments of lava known to have come from the west slope of Mount Shasta. This deposit appears to be a moraine, left by a glacier that no longer exists. Its surface, like that of moraines in general, is hummocky and contains small basin-like hollows occupied by ponds or swamps. The western extension of this moraine abuts against the foothills of the Klamath Mountains. The meadows seen on the right (west) on the way down to Sisson probably represent a lake whose waters were held against the natural dam of the moraine. In course of time the lake was silted up and became a meadow. The morainal material, which is well exposed at Upton, is used for track ballast.

About 1-1/2 miles north of Sisson (338 miles from San Francisco) a large spring may be seen to the west of the railroad. This is some times referred to as the source of Sacramento River, but the real head of the Sacramento is in the mountains about 7 miles southwest of this spring.

Mount Shasta (Pl. XXI) stands out majestically from Sisson and may be ascended from this point. A good trail, about 6 miles in length, leads to Timberline camp, and from this camp the summit, 6,000 feet higher, may be reached and the return made to Sisson in a day.

PLATE XXI.—MOUNT SHASTA, FROM SISSON, CAL. View after the first snowfall of autumn. Mount Shasta is a double volcano, consisting of Shastina, on the left, and Shasta proper, on the right, 2,000 feet higher (elevation 14,380 feet).

That temperature and moisture control the distribution of plants and animals is well illustrated by the strong contrast between the flora of Mount Shasta and that of Shasta Valley. The summit of Shasta is bare of vegetation because of cold, and Shasta Valley, 10 miles away, is treeless for lack of moisture. Between these extremes lies the great forest belt of Mount Shasta, the trees of which are arranged in zones according to the requirements of each species for temperature and moisture. The tree zones as worked out by Dr. C. Hart Merriam are shown in simplified diagrammatic form in figure 10.

FIGURE 10.—Tree zones of Mount Shasta, Cal. a, Transition zone, yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa), sugar pine (Pinus lambertiana), and many others; b, Canadian zone, Shasta fir (Abies shastensis); c, Hudsonian zone, white-barked pine (Pinus albicaulis); d, alpine zone, Hulsea nana, extending up to 11,300 feet; e, zone above plant growth. The highest plants found are the Sierra alpine draba (Draba breweri) and Polemonium pulchellum, which occur at 13,000 feet.

The extreme upper limit of plant growth is reached at an elevation of 13,000 feet. Among the animals that frequent the summit may be mentioned butterflies, hawks, and mice. Buckbrush and manzanita make the undergrowth of the lumbered region, but the trees appear to be gaining on the underbrush in the struggle for existence.

The glaciers of Mount Shasta are smaller than those of Mount Rainier, and the charming upland meadows of the northern mountain are entirely lacking here. The view from the summit, however, is unsurpassed by that from any cone in the Cascade Range. Although considered extinct, Mount Shasta still shows vestiges of volcanic activity. There is a sulphurous fumarole (an opening from which hot gases issue) on its summit and another on its northern slope. During one of the later eruptions of Shasta a stream of lava (andesite) poured down its southern slope, entered the channel of the Sacramento, and followed that stream for 50 miles.

Below Mott the railroad makes a sharp bend and descends into the canyon of the Sacramento. For 75 miles this canyon traverses a spur of the Klamath Mountains that projects toward the Sierra Nevada. In the descent into the canyon there may be seen on the right (north) a continuous section of more than 300 feet of lavas and tuffs. At milepost 328 the railroad doubles on itself again and crosses the Sacramento, the first of 17 crossings between Sisson and Redding. The older rocks (Paleozoic and Mesozoic) of the Klamath Mountains appear here, and those most noticeable along this part of the route are serpentine and some related coarse-grained dark eruptive rocks.

The Shasta Springs yield a celebrated carbonated water containing a large percentage of iron and magnesia, which is bottled for market. The town and hotels are on a terrace 300 feet above the springs, which issue near the contact of the horizontal lavas with the underlying older rocks. Near the main spring is Oxone Spring, whose water is of an entirely different character and has a pungent odor.

A few hundred yards below Shasta Springs the train again crosses Sacramento River and passes the beautiful Moss Brae Falls (Pl. XX, B) on the left. Summer resorts are numerous in this vicinity. A short distance below Shasta Springs the lava, which, as previously described, at one time took possession of the channel of the river, forms both sides of the canyon cut by the Sacramento since it was so rudely ejected. A good example of columnar jointing may be seen in this lava on the right (west) side of the track, as the train nears Dunsmuir.

Dunsmuir is chiefly a railroad town. Good hunting and fishing are to be had near by, and in front of the station are two aquariums in which may be seen the varieties of trout found in the region. Three miles south of Dunsmuir, on Little Castle Creek, is a chromite mine, which in 1913 was the only mine in the United States producing chromic iron ore. In 1914 there were several other but much smaller producers. At the crossing of Little Castle Creek, near milepost 319, the rugged pinnacles of Castle Rock appear on the right. Castle Crag, Castle Rock, and Castella are all neighboring summer resorts near the rugged peaks that suggested their names. At Castle Rock there are effervescent (carbonic acid) springs, the water from which is bottled near the mouth of Soda Creek. This place was a noted station on the old Oregon-California stage line Soda Creek drains an area of Paleozoic slates and limestones Sacramento River.

From Castella a trail runs west across the Trinity Mountains to Cinnabar, where quicksilver ore has been found. Serpentine and related dark igneous rocks (pyroxenite and gabbro) are the principal rocks along the railroad near Castella and in the mountains to the west. In places these rocks have been rendered slaty by enormous pressure. The narrow mass of Shasta lava through which Sacramento River is cutting forms low benches at many places along the sides of the canyon. Between Castella and milepost 311, 2 miles north of Sims, the river has not yet worn down into the older rocks, and consequently the lava appears in the bed of the stream.

Sims, near the mouth of Hazel Creek, which enters the Sacramento from the east, is frequented by trout fishermen, the upper Sacramento affording excellent sport with the fly. Some asbestos occurs in the serpentine west of the station. Near milepost 307 the railroad crosses Shotgun Creek, on which chromite was mined a few years ago.

The scenery along the Sacramento Canyon from Shasta Springs to Redding is varied and charming. In places the river is narrowly confined between steep slopes 2,000 feet in height. Elsewhere the valley opens and little farms are perched on the hillside benches. All the slopes are well wooded, for although lumbermen have come and gone the country is rapidly being reforested and daily grows more attractive. The clear rushing Sacramento, here foaming over bowlders, there flashing more quietly under the large leaves of the water saxifrage (Peltiphyllum peltatum), which grows in beautiful masses along the water's edge, is a stream to delight the heart of a fisherman. Along it may be seen the expert with the fly wielding his delicate tackle, in contrast with the Indian under his tentlike shelter, waiting, spear in hand, for the unsuspecting salmon.