The Shaping of a Natural and Industrial Landscape: Whiskeytown National Recreation Area Historic Resource Study
Catton T and Diane K. 2025. The Shaping of a Natural and Industrial Landscape: Whiskeytown National Recreation Area Historic Resource Study. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Whiskeytown, California. https://doi.org/10.36967/2313935
The history of Whiskeytown is primarily a history that centers around a series of resource-extraction-based human occupations. In pre-contact times the place was occupied by the Wintu and the vital resource that they exploited was salmon. In 1849, the vital resource became gold. Later it was copper. Then it was timber in the forest. And then it was water, which falls on the mountains as rain and snow and is so vital to the agriculture and population that is concentrated in the thirsty valley below. Today the vital resource is not just the mountain water itself but all the recreation that occurs on and around the artificial lake, too. Each succeeding occupation has left its mark on the land and the people. It is a fascinating history. The park’s cultural resources are an eclectic mix from all of these different human occupations, but together they tell a story about humans living on the land, reshaping their environment, and holding values that reflect the place in which they live.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Catton, Theodore; Diane, Krahe
- Date of Issue
- 2025-02
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- DOI
- 10.36967/2313935
- Units
- PWR , WHIS
- Keywords
- California, Carr Fire, Central Valley Project, copper, gold, Gold Rush, lumber, mining, recreation, Shasta County, transportation, water, Whiskeytown, Wintu
- License
- Public Domain