Mount Shasta Research Paper

The first reported sighting of Mount Shasta by a European or American was by Peter Skene Ogden, who was leading a Hudson's Bay Company trapping brigade, in 1826. Years later, in August of 1854, Elias Pierce led a group of eight men in the first attempt to reach the summit of the mountain. When they struck out, they did not know how tall the mountain was or even which route to take. They made it to the summit and raised a U.S. flag. Their story was published in the San Francisco Daily Herald (Summiting Mount Shasta). The owner and innkeeper of the horse camp at the base of the mountain, Justin Sisson, placed a register on the summit in 1868, where it remained until 1900. People who reached the summit could stop and write their thoughts …show more content…
The climate becomes colder as the elevation increases and there has been record breaking snow falls on the mountain. John Muir described flora and fauna in his accounts of Mount Shasta. The forest is made up of Douglass spruce, yellow and sugar pines, and incense cedar, and silver fir. John Muir describes the plant life in three distinct botanic zones. The first zone is the chaparral zone with an average width of about four miles. Dense chaparral grows from three to six feet high and is composed mainly of manzanita, cherry, and several species of wild lilac. It is interrupted by vast swaths of conifers including sugar, and yellow pines, Douglass spruce, silver fir, and incense cedar. Many of the trees are over 200 feet high and six or seven feet in diameter at the base. This area has a multitude of wildflowers including Goldenrods, a variety of lilies, and lupines, and many other herbaceous plants. Wildflowerconservancy.org has photos of many of Mount Shasta’s wildflowers, and the Kelley’s Lily is shown at right. The next higher area is the fir zone, which is two or three miles wide and is made up mainly of three types of silver-firs. Muir describes this area as the simplest and best defined of the three zones. The highest zone is the alpine zone which is made up of dwarf pines, heathworts, sedges, and lichens. The pines grow up to an approximate elevation of 9,500 feet. …show more content…
Many people hike to the summit, others go on shorter walks, go skiing, or camping in the surrounding area. However, others feel drawn to the mountain and feel that it is a sacred place that holds power. Several Indian tribes including the Shasta, Modoc, Karuk, Klamath, Wintu, and Yana tribes revere the mountain. The Native Americans have felt it is a sacred place and they were the first humans to inhabit the area; artifacts have been found in the region that date up to 9,000 years old. Native American camps have been discovered on the north side of Mount Shasta that could date back to 2,500 BCE. Religious groups are drawn to the mountain. The Shasta Abbey is a Buddhist monastery near Mount Shasta that was founded in 1970 as a training place for Buddhist monks, and a place of practice for lay people (Shasta Abbey). The myth of the Lemurians drew many people to the areas. Lemurians are a spiritually advanced race of people, who are tall, graceful with large heads and foreheads and come into nearby towns to spend gold nuggets (Miesse). There have been many reports of Sasquatch and UFO sightings in the area, and these myths and legends have drawn curiosity seekers. Ecotourism benefits the small surrounding towns and improves their failing economies which were once logging or lumber mill based. Tourism, even though it supports the economy of the area, can be hard on the fragile environments and the climate of