Redding

No town of Northern California has a more promising future, and exhibits at the present time more enterprise, activity and rapidity of growth than Redding, in the southwestern part of Shasta County, of which it is the county seat. It is at the upper end of the great Sacramento Valley, 169 miles north of Sacramento, and is built on a plateau on the back of the Sacramento River, here a clear mountain stream which sweeps around the town to the east and south. No town in the State has a more charming and picturesque location. The brief history of Redding is one of rapid progress, and never has it been more marked than now. Its population has increased from 500 in 1883 to over 2,000 at the present time, and with the rapid development of the county, which will follow the recent completion of the first railroad through this region, and the vast territory that must remain tributary to Redding, extending in some directions a hundred and fifty miles, a rapid and continued growth is assured. The city has water and gas works, a great variety of manufactories, many important buildings, a fine court house and jail, two newspapers, good schools and several churches. The river here affords fine water power and the lumber interests of the country tributary to Redding are immense. The future of this lively place depends largely on the development of the country about it; and with the great variety of soil, climate and products, the thousands of acres of cheap, unoccupied lands that only await intelligent cultivation to yield great profits, and with the other almost inexhaustible resources which the country possesses, there can be no question on this point. During the past few years the country has made rapid strides, many settlers have invested, building has amounted almost to a boom, new industries started, and thousands of acres of orchards and vineyards have been planted. No part of California offers such inducements to the farmer, the laboring man, the capitalist, or the home-seeker, as Shasta County. There is a delightful semi-tropical climate in the valleys and plateaus of the south, and a gradual change is noted as higher altitudes are reached, that of the mountains resembling the New England States. The climate of the southern portion of the county is indicated by the fact that orange trees flourish and bear abundantly. The county is noted for the number and beauty of its clear, sparkling streams, which burst from the mountains through wild, picturesque cañons and flow onward through small fertile valleys of great beauty. In these mountain streams the finest trout-fishing in the State is found. (Population, 2,500. Distance from San Francisco, 260 miles. Elevation, 551 feet.)

Rev 2000-02-18