Towering more than a mile above its neighbors, perhaps the youngest of the group, Mt. Shasta is the end of a long series of volcanoes in the Cascade Range, stretching northwest to Mt. Tacoma. This range, composed chiefly of volcanic material, is cut across by the cañons of the Columbia and the Klamath rivers, in the former of which, beneath a thickness of 3,500 feet of lava, are found strata containing Tertiary fossils. At the southern base of Mt. Shasta, in the cañon of the McLoud River, similar beds of volcanic debris are found, but without fossils, nevertheless it is evident that the main mass of the Cascade Range and its volcanoes originated in recent geologic times, and from the fact that solfataras, fumeroles, and hot springs are still abundant upon their slopes, they can not be reckoned among those which are wholly extinct.
A frontiersman in Washington Territory tells of an outburst of Mt. St. Helens in the winter of 1841-2.
Upon somewhat more trustworthy authority it is said that to the southward of Mt. Shasta, about forty miles, a small cone which may be considered parasitic to Lassens Peak, has been in eruption as late as January, 1850, ejecting considerable ashes and cinders, and pouring forth a mass of lava, which gradually spread, attaining a circumference of over four miles, and presenting an abrupt embankment-like termination upon all sides eighty to ninety feet in height. Trees, blackened by the fiery stream, are still standing to furnish incontestable evidence of its recency.
The country is full of rumors of subterranean rumblings, and the people are prone to attribute them to the dying throes of volcanic energy.
One of the most striking features of the region is the strongly contrasted types of volcanic action in Mt. Shasta. Both have approximately the same area. In the valley there have been many scores of volcanic vents, among which the energy has been so widely diffused that none of them have furnished lava sufficient to form a hill more than a few hundred feet in height.
On the contrary, the mountain represents a small number of vents, and the volcanic was nearly all concentrated in one place, so that the extrusions were all piled up, one upon another, and resulted in the upbuilding of one majestic elevation.
Thus it has been from a small beginning, probably in early Tertiary times, that by successive boilings over, so to speak, additions have been made to the mountain until it attained a height beyond its present altitude. The constructive agents reached their limit, dissipated their energy, and gave way to destructive ones, which are gradually undoing the work.
Mt. Shasta must ever be one of the most popular mountains among tourists of the West. It is easily accessible from a main line of travel which passes by its base, at Berryvale, where comfortable quarters and necessary outfit for the ascent can be obtained.
The streams are filled with trout, and the forest with game, so that the region affords many attractions for the sportsman.
Several hours’ travel by a good trail brings the party to Camp Ross, at the timber line, from which the ascent can easily be made in a day without danger.