Welcome to Exploring Shasta County history...
With this blog, I am bringing to life the stories of the early day pioneers and some of the oft-forgotten history of a bygone era in Shasta County, California. I'll also focus on important events after the turn of the 20th century. I would like to reflect upon current historical sites of the modern age as well.
This is copyrighted by Jeremy M. Tuggle.
My last visit to this mine was in 2020 and on October 21, 2023, I returned to the Mount Shasta Mine in the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area and is part of the Shasta Mining District. This site dates to 1897. Upon my return to the site, I found some familiar things like the old tailing/waste rock piles, a prospect, an adit, foundations of its stamp mill and the known incline shaft that's fenced off by the park service. However, I was least expecting to find something new...
What surprised me was locating a secondary vertical shaft on top of the main haulage tunnel of the adit. Possibly, it could be a raise as well from inside the main haulage tunnel which are practically the same thing, however it was a shock to me to find this plugged shaft. The known incline shaft has a fence around it and is right next to the trail with water in the incline shaft. While the new shaft is plugged at this historic mining site. I'm hoping to explore more of the area soon.
RESOURCES:
Mining and Scientific Press, 75 no. 18 (October 1897)
The Free Press newspaper of Redding, October 14, 1899
The Free Press newspaper of Redding, January 22, 1900
Mount Shasta Mine Sold and Paid For - The Courier Free-Press newspaper of Redding, February 16, 1912
Mount Shasta Mine Sold to H.O. Cummins - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, April 22, 1913
Historic Resource Study Whiskeytown National Recreation Area by Anna Coxe Toogood, May 1978, Denver Service Center, Historic Preservation Team, National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior
Above: a miner pushing an ore cart filled with rock at the Mount Shasta mine. Courtesy of the Shasta Historical Society.
Located about 2 1/2 miles from the town of Shasta is the Mount Shasta mine, a once-lucrative producer of gold and one of the larger gold mining operations in the Shasta mining district, after gold was discovered in the area in 1897. The mine, which is within the boundaries of the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area on the Mt. Shasta Mine Loop Trail, can be found after a moderate 1.2 mile hike to the mining property, or you can hike the entire loop distance of 3.1 miles.
The mine was first owned and operated by then-Shasta County Sheriff, Charles Behrens, the maternal grandfather of the late Honorable Shasta County Superior Court Judge, Richard B. Eaton. Behrens operated the mine with his mining partner, Levisay, and they negotiated a contract with the Keswick smelter to have their ore treated. The Mount Shasta mine consisted of the Pittsburgh mining claim and one other mining claim as well.
Above: a man tending to two horses hitched to a wagon at the Mount Shasta mine. In the back ground is the building which enclosed the eight stamp steam powered mill. Courtesy of the Shasta Historical Society.
Behrens and Levisay, began digging a winze on the property which sunk down to about 80 feet below the surface of the earth, and this was the start of the 463 foot shaft on the property. To jump start the production earnings, Behrens and Levisay’s ore first earned them between $80 to $90 per ton at Keswick. Later that year, Behrens and Levisay sold their mining claim to San Francisco capitalists Hirshly, Vair & Farfst for $10,000.
Early on, in 1898, the new owners organized the Mount Shasta Gold Mine LTD., and they employed fifteen men to operate the mine by February of 1898. During the following year, Hirshly, Vair & Farfst had a stamp mill built for them on the property consisting of eight stamps, which operated by steam to crush their rock so their miners could obtain the ore they were seeking. Each stamp weighed 1,050 pounds, and a building was erected which enclosed the perimeter of the stamp mill as well.
Other equipment included a wooden head frame with a steam powered hoist, and a cage so miners could toil away in the shaft to extract the ore of the lower levels or to enter a drift they were working. The Mount Shasta Gold Mine LTD., began lowering the winze on the property as well. Eventually, the mine included seven levels with drifts branching off from the main winze.
By 1900, the Mount Shasta mine and its holdings were sold to O.O. Howard and F.E. Ware of Redding. Ware was a former superintendent at this gold mine. Howard and Ware employed W.G. Scott as their superintendent who supervised the work of their miners as the production of this mine continued. While the work progressed on the property, their miners probed and examined the rock on site which also consisted of digging and blasting out an adit, not far from the main shaft of the property.
The Mount Shasta Gold Mine LTD. expanded their holdings in the area after purchasing additional mining claims and bringing in additional shares of investors or capitalists from the Chicago area. Eventually in 1901 this company entered the copper mining industry of Shasta County, with most of the company’s copper claims were in the Pittsburgh mining district near Bully Hill. They focused on those copper claims between 1901 and 1904 due to the shut-down of the Mount Shasta mine which remained idled after that.
Surprisingly, another transaction occurred in 1912 when the Mount Shasta mine was sold to A.A. Linsdsay & Associates of Portland, Oregon, for an impressive $35,000. They had planned to enter an extensive hiring phase that December to employ one hundred miners, and continue the production of this gold mine.
During May of 1913, after re-timbering the adit and drifts on the property and installing a new ore-shoot, the mine was sold to H.O. Cummins and Associates for about the same price as the previous transaction. 1915 was the final year of production for this gold mine and the total production reached an output of $180,000 in gold, which is the equivalent of $2.5 Million in today’s currency.
Note: the Mount Shasta Gold Mine LTD., can be found as the Mount Shasta Gold Mine Corporation in the written historical records as well.
Above: The Mount Shasta mine as filmed on location by Jeremy Tuggle on August 25, 2020.
RESOURCES:
Mining and Scientific Press, 75 no. 18 (October 1897)
The Free Press newspaper of Redding, October 14, 1899
The Free Press newspaper of Redding, January 22, 1900
Mount Shasta Mine Sold And Paid For - The Courier Free-Press newspaper of Redding, February 16, 1912
Mount Shasta Mine Sold To H.O. Cummins - The Courier-Free Press newspaper of Redding, April 22, 1913
Historic Resource Study Whiskeytown National Recreation Area by Anna Coxe Toogood, May 1978, Denver Service Center, Historic Preservation Team, National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior
*David Corsaut was named sheriff following a special election. However, in May 1852, he was suspended after failing to submit the required bond required to secure the office. The Court of Sessions then appointed James M. Coats as sheriff. Corsaut later satisfied the bonding requirement and resumed the office in September 1852.
June 15, 1852 - September 1, 1852 - James M. Coats.
September 1, 1852 - September 1, 1854 - David Corsaut
September 1, 1854 - September 5, 1855 - William A. Nunnally
September 5, 1855 - September 5, 1857 - John A. Dreibelbis
September 2, 1857 - September 2, 1859 - H. Clay Stockton
September 7, 1859 - September 7, 1863 - John S. Follansbee
September 2, 1863 - September 2, 1867 - William E. Hopping
*Hopping served a second term from November 7, 1882 - February 1892
September 4, 1867 - September 6, 1871 - Thomas Greene
*Greene was appointed Sheriff to complete Hopping’s term on February 15, 1892.
September 6, 1871 - 1881 - Sylvester Hull
November 8, 1892 - 1894 - Albert F. Ross Sr.
*Ross Sr., served a second term from November 3, 1914 - 1919
November 6, 1894 - November 1898 - Thomas J. Houston
November 8, 1898 - November 1902 - Charles H. Behrens
November 4, 1902 - November 1906 - James L. Richardson
*Richardson was appointed to complete the term of Ross Sr., on January 27, 1919.
November 6, 1906- 1914 - James L. Montgomery
November 7, 1922 - 1942 - William W. Sublett
November 3, 1942 - 1946 - Roy Duggins
November 5, 1946 - August 31, 1982 - John Balma
September 1, 1982 - November 8, 1982 - James J. Carter
November 9, 1982 - December 1, 1990 - Pilip Eoff
December 4, 1990 - December 2005 - James “Jim” Pope
June 6, 2006 - December 2019 - Thomas Bosenko
December 2019 - 2021 - Eric Magrini
Present Sheriff: Michael L Johnson
*Last updated: March 15, 2026
RESOURCES:
Compiled from listings available at Shasta Historical Society in Redding.
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