3. 1901 Ash Creek
Bridge:
Mile marker 101.65
Typical narrow wagon trail
Photo courtesy Siskiyou County
Museum
4. Tree of Heaven
Campground: Mile marker
99.0
![]() Doodlebug on the Klamatb Photo courtesy Siskiyou County Museum |
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Tribe |
Photo courtesy Brian Helsaple |
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The Shasta Indian Tribe occupied a vast area encompassing the upper reaches of the Salmon, Klamath, Scott, Shasta and McCloud Rivers. During the winter, women, elders and children occupied multiple-family houses while the hunters went into the surrounding mountains for venison. Communal hunts made use of fires, "brush trail traps" and groups of people to drive deer into an ambush. The men were skilled at throwing sticks to break the wings of geese that habitually passed over low mountain gaps. The Shastas also subsisted on dried fish, acorns and a bulb called apaw.
Each spring new brush huts were fashioned near the mouths of creeks entering the rivers, creating numerous small villages. The men fished for salmon and hunted deer with obsidian-tipped arrows. The women and children dived for mussels and gathered berries during the summer. In August the second salmon run began, followed by acorn gathering.
The Shasta had a source of obsidian and curing salt for barter. Deer hides and venison were also traded with other tribes for dentalia (a tubular sea shell used for decoration and as a medium of exchange), as well as a variety of acorns, baskets and the occasional canoe.
The Tribe had a 4000-pound sacred boulder
called the Rain Rock located at Gottville. It was deeply pocked by
the hands of medicine men over past centuries, who buried the rock
over 200 years ago to stop the rain and flooding. The rock was
uncovered by a road-building crew in the 1930s and years later taken
to the small museum in Fort Jones. Even non-Indians continue to call
and request that the tribe cover the rock on special occasions to
prevent rain.
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