The Historic Flume Trail at Castle Crags State Park

Video filmed on location.

In this episode of Exploring Shasta County History, we will tour the remains of a historic water ditch and flume in the boundaries of the Castle Crags State Park, just 40 miles north of Redding, California. This water ditch and flume system dates to the 1890s and was constructed to channel water into the town site of Castella from Castle Creek and Indian Creek. Later on, miners utilized its water in the area for the extraction of gold at their mining claims. Some of these former sites along the present-day trail system have miner camp castoffs at their location to explore as well. This trail is an easy to moderate hike. 

Castella was a railroad station which was first called Castle Rock due to the highest dome of the nearby crags. Yet that name was short-lived, and in 1890 the United States Post Office headquarters in Washington D.C., designated the site which we know as Castella today, as Leland. The town of Leland was named in honor of Leland Standford, an American attorney, industrialist, philanthropist, and a member of the Republican Party. Standford served as the sixth governor of the state of California from 1862 to 1863. Standford owned a beautiful summer home at Lower Soda Springs in Shasta County, California. 

In 1890 the name of the town of Leland was changed again to Castella about the time this historic flume was erected to serve the community. The town site included a railroad depot, grocery store, hotel, school and a United States Post Office for local residents to send and receive mail. The area was mined for gold and logged for lumber as Castella boasted a population of 600 people at one-time. The town site still remains today along Interstate-5 in the Sacramento River Canyon and its United States Post Office is still in service to the public. 

Resources:

The Free Press newspaper of Redding, December 3, 1892

Castella Items - The Free Press newspaper of Redding, September 2, 1893

Castella Items - The Free Press newspaper of Redding, October 7, 1893

Castella News - The Free Press newspaper of Redding, March 3, 1894

Summer Resorts Up the Canyon - The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, August 4, 1904

Castella Is Angry At S.P. - The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, November 19, 1907

J.A. Rich, Miner Rescued Thursday Afternoon Several Miles West of Castella - The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, March 30, 1907

Cannot Locate New Shasta Post Office - The Chico Record, newspaper of Chico, January 21, 1908

$39,000 Blaze Wipes Out Big Part of Castella - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, September 16, 1919

Castella Is Now a Thriving Town - The Searchlight newspaper of Redding, August 9, 1923

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

U.S., Appointments of U.S. Postmasters, 1832-1971