Welcome to Shasta County
With mountains on the northern, eastern, and western sides, Shasta County sits at the northern end of the narrowing Central Valley. Most of the county is mountainous with some areas that are relatively flat. It has elevations ranging from 430 feet at Anderson to 10,027 feet at Lassen Park in the southeast corner. The majority of Shasta's 161,700 person population live along a 20-mile stretch of urbanization along Interstate 5. The county has an endless amount of recreation activities.
Shasta Dam
Photo Courtesy of Redding
Convention & Visitor's Bureau

One of California's 27 original counties, Shasta County once covered 20,000 square miles, extending from Butte County to the Oregon border and from the summit of the coastal range to Nevada. California's first Legislature created the county February 18, 1850, but successive meetings carved off parts for Siskiyou County (1852), Tehama County (1856), and Lassen County (1864), whittling Shasta County down to about 3,850 square miles.

There are 90 industries in the County with 100 to 1,400 employees. Typical of most metropolitan cities, service related industries are the counties major employers, (27% in 1996). With the 3rd highest production values in the state, timber is the county's top resource commodity exceeded by only Humboldt and Mendocino counties. Although Shasta produces comparatively less agricultural value than any other Valley county, it can safely be said that without Shasta and the countless acre feet of water dammed by the Central Valley Project (CVP) at Shasta Lake, Central Valley agriculture as we know it today would not exist. Major farm products are field crops, livestock, nursery products, and orchards.