Buzzard Roost

Above: Buzzard Roost as it appeared during its prime with its hotel and other buildings near bye. Courtesy of Shasta Historical Society. 

Government Trading Post was established as a community along Cedar Creek at the junction of (old) Oak Run and Reid toll roads in 1869. It’s unknown how the community received it’s name, yet it’s name changed at a later date to Buzzard Roost. The name Buzzard Roost derives from a quartet of saloon habitués, heaving over a bridge rail called a "bunch of buzzards". During the 1880s, Buzzard Roost was flourishing as a stage station with stages arriving and departing daily, and this continued well into the 20th century.

Then in 1882, Buzzard Roost became part of the Round Mountain Post Office until 1905. During November of 1885, local Frederick Leith shot and killed a large American Eagle which was perched on a branch of a tree on his property in the area. After it was brought down to the ground this American Eagle was measured at eight feet from tip to tip, and three feet from the point of bill to the tip of the tail. During December of 1892 the following story was heralded in state wide media coverage: 

“A little girl twenty-one months old wandered from her home at Buzzard Roost, twenty-four miles from Redding, Shasta County, Sunday noon, while the temperature was 8 deg., above zero, and was not found until Monday evening. When found she was lying on her back cold and stiff, but she was revived by rubbing her body with whisky. The searchers found where she had slept in a clump of pines Sunday, where, doubtless, she was sheltered partially from the cold.” (SIC)

The community was a wild place with saloon brawls and lone highwaymen waiting for approaching stages usually, the Redding and Bieber Stage, which conveyed passengers to and from the area. Often this stage line hauled valuables connected with Wells Fargo & Company which caught the attention of the highwaymen who preyed upon their stages. Buzzard Roost, which included a hotel with a stage station, a corral, three dwellings, a blacksmith shop, and a saloon, were destroyed by fire on September 25, 1926. Presently, Buzzard Roost Road retains the name of the former community.

RESOURCES:

Notes From Shasta - The San Jose Mercury newspaper of San Jose, November 18, 1885

A Lone Highwayman - The San Jose Herald newspaper of San Jose, October 25, 1889

A Babe In the Woods - The San Francisco Call newspaper of San Francisco, December 24, 1892

The Los Angeles Herald newspaper of Los Angeles, December 24, 1892 

The Placer Argus newspaper of Auburn, January 6, 1893

Stage Runaway And One Man Had Leg Broken - The Chico Record newspaper of Chico, February 26, 1909

My Playhouse Was A Concord Coach, an anthology of newspaper clippings and documents relating to those who made California history during the years 1822-1888, by Mae Hélène Bacon Boggs. Published by Howell-North Press ©1942

Our Storied Landmarks – Shasta County, California, written by May H. Southern, published by Balakshin Printing Company, ©1942.

Shasta County, California A History by Rosena Giles, published by Biobooks, ©1949.

Place Names of Shasta County by Gertrude A. Steger revision by Helen Hinckley Jones, ©1966 by La Siesta Press, Glendale, California

May H. Southern’s scrapbook’s. Nine binders. Unpublished personal and researched material compiled by Southern. Available at Shasta Historical Society.