Virtual Guidebook to Mount Shasta and the Klamath Mountains
Dunsmuir
Siskiyou County, California

Dunsmuir is a long narrow town down in the canyon of the Sacramento River. It was a classic railroad town, where they added extra engines for the steep grade up over the shoulder of Mount Shasta. My grandfather worked as a mechanic in the roundhouse here soon after he emigrated from Scotland in 1918. The turntable is still there and in working condition, but the only remnant of the roundhouse is "Roundhouse Pool" where railroad workers could fish out the window.

The trains still roar slowly through town and Amtrak stops once a day, but few employees are needed and the town depends on traffic from Interstate 5. Fly fishermen are drawn to the cold clear river and streams. Old fashioned motels and small resorts line the old highway - check out the Cave Springs Resort.