French Gulch is a census-designated place (CDP) in Shasta County, California, United States. Its population is 373 as of the 2020 census, up from 346 from the 2010 census.
The Wintu are Native Americans who live in what is now Northern California. They are part of a loose association of peoples known collectively as the Wintun. There are three major groups that make up the Wintu speaking people. The Wintu, Nomlaki, and Patwin. The Wintu language is part of the Penutian language family.
The Trinity River is a major river in northwestern California in the United States and is the principal tributary of the Klamath River. The Trinity flows for 165 miles (266 km) through the Klamath Mountains and Coast Ranges, with a watershed area of nearly 3,000 square miles (7,800 km2) in Trinity and Humboldt Counties. Designated a National Wild and Scenic River, along most of its course the Trinity flows swiftly through tight canyons and mountain meadows.
State Route 49 is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California that passes through many historic mining communities of the 1849 California gold rush and it is known as the Golden Chain Highway. The highway's creation was lobbied by the Mother Lode Highway Association, a group of locals and historians seeking a single highway to connect many relevant locations along the Gold Rush to honor the 49ers. One of the bridges along SR 49 is named for the leader of the association, Archie Stevenot.
Clear Creek is a tributary of the upper Sacramento River in northern California.
Whiskeytown Lake is a reservoir in Shasta County in northwestern California, United States, about 8 miles (13 km) west of Redding. The lake is in the Whiskeytown Unit of the Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area.
Shasta is a census-designated place (CDP) in Shasta County, California, United States. Shasta sits at an elevation of 843 feet (257 m). Its population is 1,043 as of the 2020 census, down from 1,771 from the 2010 census.
Kentucky Camp is a ghost town and former mining camp along the Arizona Trail in Pima County, Arizona, United States, near the community of Sonoita. The Kentucky Camp Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been since 1995. As it is located within Coronado National Forest, the United States Forest Service is responsible for the upkeep of the remaining buildings within the Kentucky Camp Historic District.
Cripple Creek Historic District is a historic district including Cripple Creek, Colorado, United States and is significant for its gold mining era history. It developed as a gold mining center beginning in 1890, with a number of buildings from that period surviving to this day. The mines in the area were among the most successful, producing millions of dollars of gold in the 1890s and supporting a population of 25,000 at its peak. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.
Whiskeytown was an unincorporated community in Shasta County, California, United States. Although once a bustling mining town, it was flooded to make way for Whiskeytown Lake in 1962, now part of Whiskeytown–Shasta–Trinity National Recreation Area. All that remains is the relocated store, a few residences, and old mines that are above the water level of the lake. Whiskeytown is registered as a California Historical Landmark.
Spring Creek Debris Dam is an earthfill dam on Spring Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River, in Shasta County in the U.S. state of California. Completed in 1963, the dam, maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, serves primarily to collect severe acid mine drainage stemming from the Iron Mountain Mine. The dam forms the Spring Creek Reservoir, less than 1 mile (1.6 km) long. Spring Creek and South Fork Spring Creek flow into the reservoir from a 16-square-mile (41 km2) watershed. The dam is directly upstream from the city of Keswick, California and the Keswick Reservoir. The operation is part of the Trinity River Division of the Central Valley Project.
Fine Gold Creek, in Fine Gold Gulch, is a creek in a gulch in Madera County, California that is a river tributary of the San Joaquin River. It is approximately 18 miles (29 km) from its mouth on the San Joaquin through where it has two forks to its headwaters.
Whiskeytown Dam is an earthfill dam on Clear Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River of northern California in the United States.
Keswick Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Sacramento River about 2 miles (3.2 km) northwest of Redding, California. Part of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Central Valley Project, the dam is 157 feet (48 m) high and impounds the Keswick Reservoir, which has a capacity of 23,800 acre⋅ft (29,400,000 m3). The dam's power plant has three turbines with a generating capacity of 117 megawatts (MW), which, in 1992, was uprated from its original 75 MW. The dam and reservoir serve as an afterbay to regulate peaking power releases from the Shasta Dam upstream.
The site of the Old Mining Camp of Brownsville is a California Historical Landmark on Pennsylvania Gulch Road east of the town of Murphys, California in Calaveras County. The Mining Camp of Brownsville was a California Gold Rush camp in Pennsylvania Gulch in from 1850 to 1870. The camp is named after Alfred Brown, who was the former owner of the Table Mountain Ranch. There were many rich mines in the area and Brownsville Mining Camp supported this activity. So rich was the area, the Brownsville Mining District limited the size of mines in the District. Each miner could claim and own only one wet and one dry site, no larger than 150 square feet each. Brownsville Mining District was in the area of Pennsylvania Gulches and Missouri Gulches 2 miles from Murphys. There are no remains of the camp, but nearby is the Brownsville Mining District Cemetery. A plaque monument was dedicated on July 19, 1953, by California State Park Commission with the monument base built by Christa Parlor No. 137 and Ruby Parlor No. 49 of the Native Daughters of the Golden West.
Reading's Bar is a historical site in Redding, California in Shasta County. Reading's Bar is a California Historical Landmark No. 32 listed on August 1, 1932. Reading's Bar was named after Major Pierson Barton Reading, who discovered gold on the Clear Creek bar in May 1848, starting a California Gold Rush in the surrounding area. Later he found gold on a sandbar on the Trinity River that started the Trinity Alps Gold Rush. Reading's gold discovery was a major part of the California Gold Rush and news of the find created a rush of gold prospecting in Northern California, well north of the better-known gold fields of the Sierra Nevada foothills.
Horsetown was a major historical mining town on the Clear Creek in Reading, California in Shasta County. The town was founded as a tent mining town in 1851 after Major Pierson Barton Reading found gold just east of where the town was founded. Reading's gold find site is called Reading's Bar after the sandbar on Clear Creek. The small mining town was first called Clear Creek Diggings in 1851, it was founded on Clear Creek Road and Clear Creek. As the town grew it was given the name One Horse Town and then it was changed to Horsetown. The gold found here starting a California Gold Rush in the surrounding area.
Piety Hill, California is a historical site on Cloverdale Road in Shasta County, near Igo, California. The city was founded in 1849 as part of the California Gold Rush. Like many Gold Rush camps that became a town, the town grew quickly from a few miners to a town of 1,500. Near Piety Hill was Chinatown of 600 that mined and farmed. The large scale Hardscrabble mine opened in 1853. Mining need lot of water and the Dry Creek Tunnel and Fluming Company both ran a water system, with a two-mile ditch, to the town and mines nearby, built with Chinese labor. In 1866 the Hardscrabble's hydraulic mining run off threatened the town. Many fed to nearby Igo. Hydraulic mining was outlawed in 1884 in the anti-debris act. The town ended in the 1920 when the last two Chinese residents died. The Dry Creek Tunnel and Fluming Company water right were transferred to the Happy Valley Land and Water Company that serves the Happy Valley area. There are no remains of this town. The Piety Hill Loop is a 4.1-mile loop trail near Igo. A historical was place near the form town by the Ono Grange #445, E Clampus Vitus, Trintarianus Chapter # 62 and the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management.
Southern's Stage Station was built in 1859 by Simeon Fisher Southern. The Southern's Stage Station site is on 9010 Mears Ridge Road, south of Castella, California in Shasta County. The Southern's Stage Station is a California Historical Landmark No. 33 listed on August 1, 1932. Simeon Fisher Southern and his Sarah Southern operated the Stagecoach Station wife Southern's Stage Station and Southern Hotel were log cabin building built in 1859. Travelers on the stagecoach or riding through could stop for rest and food for the 50 years this station operated till 1909. The town was called Hazel Creek, California, but change to Sims, California in 1871 as Southern's Stage Station and store was the center of the town.
Dog Creek, California was mining town founded in 1855 at the site of the Dog Creek stream near where it flowed into the Sacramento River. Dog Creek was 25 miles north of Redding, California in the Sacramento River Canyon. The US Post Office at Dog Creek closed in 1880 and moved to Slate Creek. Near to Dog Creek was the railroad town of Delta, California, for about two years it was the terminus of the California & Oregon Railroad. The railroad line sold land lots at Delta and they sold quickly from $45 to $185 each. Almost overnight the town had McDowell Store, McDowell saloon, Kimball cafe, Kimball saloon, Stone saloon-hotel, a train engine house, a Train station, railway turntable, Wells Fargo Express Office, Central Hotel, cattle yard, water tower and a corral. A Dog Creek water system was built for city water. The train ride to Reading was 2 hours and 20 minutes, over 39 miles. While the railroad called the new town, Delta, many still called the town Dog Creek, as Dog Creek was just a few miles to the west and the land of Delta was in the area called Dog Creek. The largest home in Dog Creek was the Vollmers Home on the Vollmers Ranch built by J. W. Vollmers and inherited by Shelby and Paul Vollmers. Vollmers Ranch also operated the Vollmers Hotel one mile west of Delta. Vollmers opened gas station till 1945, when I-5 was built on it. Vollmers operations were called Bayles, California as the post office moved there in 1885. Dr. Autenreith operated the Autenreith Ranch and Store quarter of a mile north of Delta. In 1887 the rail line continued up the river and Delta slowly became a ghost town the post office closed in 1954, as the town was gone. March 8, 1899 Delta School opened, replaced with a new one in 1939. In 1926 the toll road in the town heading up Dog Creek, ended as toll road and became Dog Creek Road. The Delta grew to become the Delta Mining District in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Placer mining was done on Dog Creek in the 1850s and 1860. The largest operator was the Delta Consolidated Mining Company that ran lode gold mine from the 1890s till the early 1920s. The Delta gold mine operated in the Dog Creek mining district, seven miles west of Delta, on Upper Dog Creek. The Delta Consolidated Mining Company had 6.5 -mile-long narrow-gauge railroad, that ran to the Southern Pacific Railroad. In Delta was the one-room school for all the children in the nearby districts, it is one of the few buildings still standing, but has been enlarged over the years. In 1858 the Simeon and Sarah Southern moved to Dog Creek and opened an inn with J.S. Cameron. Dog Creek joined with Hazel Creek, 14 miles north to form the Sugar Loaf Township. With the combined tax income they were able to hire Simeon (Sims) Southern has Justice of the peace for the Sugar Loaf Township. Sims move north to Hazel Creek and opened the historic Southern Hotel & Stage Station in 1859.
