Shasta Dam, built 1938-45, was the second of the big federal rclamation 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 through the year. The water it impounds and releases waters the Central Valley but also the cities f Southern California.
It is also a major recrreational resource, swarming with power boats and dotted with houseboats. But the water level drops all through the summer, leaving a barren "bathtub ring" of dried red mud, and in drought years the lake level may be down hundreds of feet, so far in fct that the boat ramps and marinas lose contact with the water.