Though this story isn’t about the American River Watershed (ARW) it highlights the gold rush heritage assets still needing protecting, one of the reasons behind our call to see the ARW be designated as a National Heritage Area, a program of the National Parks Service that doesn’t change ownership or regulatory control over the land but does allow for funding and technical expertise to help a region provide protection for the heritage vested in it.
We are suggesting the area be designated as the Rivers of Gold National Heritage Area and one comparative model could be the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area in Pennsylvania.
On Foot: Stepping back in time to a Gold Rush-era waterway
By LAURIE KAVENAUGH - Style Editor
Chico Enterprise-Record
Article Launched:02/06/2007 12:00:00 AM PST
WHISKEYTOWN UNIT — The sign at the beginning of the hike advised for a few hundred feet the trail would go out along an old flume. My heart beat a little faster knowing Thomas and I might get to see some great scenery while perched on an old walkway built into the side of a canyon 25 feet above Crystal Creek.
We were on our second hike of the day Jan. 21, just down Crystal Creek Road from the falls I wrote about in last week's column. Following the road back toward Highway 299, we came to a parking lot just beyond the bridge at the 299 turnoff, about 17.5 miles west of Redding.
We were at the Crystal Creek Water Ditch trail. It's another easy, gently sloped walk that goes two miles round-trip. It gains just 30 feet in elevation.
Earlier in the morning, our walk to Crystal Creek Falls illustrated the work of the Central Valley Project in the 1960s. Massive construction projects moved water from Lewiston Dam on the Trinity River through a mountain tunnel to Whiskeytown Lake and beyond to the Sacramento River. Mounds of rock debris from the tunnel still cover the parking lot.
This trail ambles along an old "ditch" that spills into a system left over from the Gold Rush. It was built by Whiskeytown pioneer Charles Camden for his mining, sawmill and business investments.
Gold miners had already found their way to Whiskeytown by 1849. Just from its name, it's obvious this part of the woods had its modern start during the Gold Rush.
According to the Web site, California State Historical Landmarks in Shasta County, Whiskeytown got its name from a barrel of whiskey that fell off a mule pack in the middle of a creek. The same Web site reports Redding pioneer Pierson B. Reading was the first to find gold in 1848 at Shasta Bar in Clear Creek, a few miles south of Whiskeytown.
