Virtual Guidebook to Mount Shasta and the Klamath-Trinity Mountains
Shasta Lake
Whiskeytown Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area California

Shasta Dam, built 1938-45, was the second of the big federal reclamation projects and is the keystone of the Central Valley project. It is 620 feet high, impounds the Sacramento, McCloud and Pit Rivers in a huge reservoir and produces hydroelectric power steadily throughout the year. The water it impounds and releases irrigates the Central Valley and also serves the cities of Southern California.

Shasta Lake is also a major recreational resource, swarming with power boats and dotted with houseboats. The water level drops all through the summer, leaving a barren "bathtub ring" of dried red mud. In drought years the lake level may be down hundreds of feet, so far in fact that the boat ramps and marinas lose contact with the water.