Castle Crags
Sacred granite crags in Northern California.
Last updated
Where it is
Coordinates: 41°10′34″N 122°20′20″W (41.1760, -122.3390) · Open in OpenStreetMap
Coordinates and connected clubs: the infobox of Wikipedia: Castle Crags (CC BY-SA 4.0). Map: drawn by Codexery from OpenStreetMap tiles.
Castle Crags is a prominent rock formation in Northern California, with elevations ranging from 2000 feet along the Sacramento River to over 6500 feet at the tallest summit. Located west of Interstate 5 between Castella and Dunsmuir, it is a popular tourist stop and lies 10 miles south of Mount Shasta. The formation and its surrounding habitats are protected by Castle Crags State Park and the Castle Crags Wilderness Area.
History
Castle Crags lies along the Siskiyou Trail, an ancient trade and travel route. During the 1850s California Gold Rush, strained relations between miners and local Native populations led to the 1855 Battle of Castle Crags, in which poet Joaquin Miller was wounded. Miners invaded the area after false rumors of the Lost Cabin Mine, causing genocide, slavery, and forcible displacement of Indigenous people.
Joaquin Miller described a massacre of Native American women, children, and infants by drunken settlers. In 1933, concerned citizens acquired land that became Castle Crags State Park; the crags themselves are part of the Castle Crags Wilderness Area managed by the U.S. Forest Service. The area was ancestral home to the Okwanuchu Shasta and revered by the Wintu, Achumawi, and Modoc, with streams, the Sacramento River, and natural springs considered sacred.
Geology
The Castle Crags pluton is a granite body that intruded the Northern Coast Ranges during the Jurassic period. Pleistocene glaciation eroded softer surrounding rock, exposing the towering crags and spires. Exfoliation of convex granite slabs created rounded forms such as Castle Dome.
More in Religious Places of the Indigenous Peoples of North America
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Castle Crags (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the Codexery glossary, each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced