Mt. Shasta

Mt. Shasta: The queen of the great volcanoes.

Mt. Shasta is the most noted and majestic of all the mountain peaks of California. It stands alone, rising far above the surrounding mountains, and is capped with a white helmet of snow throughout the year.

From the summit of Shasta, 14,380 feet above the ocean, we obtain a view over all of Northern California. To the southeast there appears a line of forest covered mountains extending to Mt. Lassen. These were once active volcanoes. In the opposite direction we can see, if the air is clear, the lofty peaks of the Cascade Range. These also wer once active volcanoes. Looking toward the east we can make out scores of little volcanic mountains, or cinder cones as we usually call them.

Mr. Shasta began in the same way as did the cinder cones that lie scattered over the plateau, but its story did not stop as did theirs. For many thousands of years eruption followed eruption. Sometimes it was ashes and slag-like lava from the main crater; sometimes it was a lava stream which broke out of the side far below the summit.

Finally the mountain became so high that the craters broke out upon the sides. In this way Shastina, the lower peak, was made. Mt. Shasta is now probably extinct although there is a hot spring upon its summit.

Nature is at work tearing down the mountain. The rains and the water of the melting snows have washed great gullies in the loose materials. The glaciers, of which there are several, are also helping along the work of tearing down the mountain.

Rev 2000-02-18