Palo Cedro (Spanish for "Cedar Wood") is a census-designated place (CDP) in Shasta County, California, United States.

Award-winning country musician Merle Haggard lived in Palo Cedro for decades until his death on April 6, 2016.

[2] Penutian Indian tribes on the Pacific coast or valley included the Maidu, Miwok, Constanoan, Yokuts, Yanas, and other divisions.

In March 1812, the Russian-American Fur Company under Ivan Kuskov established a colony at Fort Ross on the coast of what is now Sonoma County.

[3] As early as 1817, Father Narciso Durán, on an expedition sighted a snow capped mountain (Mount Shasta), that he called Jesus Maria, from what is now the Marysville plains.

[6] The earliest European American history of Palo Cedro comes from the exploration of Hudson's Bay trapper Alexander McLeod (c. 1782 – 11 June 1840) who sometime between March 26, 1829 and April 6, 1829, along with guide John Turner, and a brigade of trappers, traveling through Mexican California, started from the Pit River following the Cow Creek trail, and reached the Sacramento River.

[7] Cow Creek is a Sacramento River tributary that runs through Palo Cedro and serves as its southeastern border.

[7] Upon his return with an abundant supply of furs, he camped on the west bank of the Sacramento River by present day Anderson in December 1829.

[7][a] In 1832, another Hudson's Bay trapper John Work (c.1792-1861), searching for a route to connect the Columbia River to the Sacramento River, reported in his journal traveling through Mexican California in with a group from the Hudson's Bay Company fur traders, staying east of the Siskiyous, bypassing Mt.

Lassen, along Cow Creek, through the areas now known as Millville and Palo Cedro, finding a way to the Sacramento Valley.

[8][b] In the surrounding area, Work noted there were local Indians who lived in huts, in addition to various wildlife and numerous animals, including deer, elk, and grizzly bears.

[12] After trapping in the Sacramento Valley, work retraced his steps to the Pit River, and using the same route as McLeod had earlier used through Bartle's Gap, but without disaster, emerged from the mountains and was assisted back to Vancouver.

In June 1850, U.S. Army Captain Nathaniel Lyon, and his military party along with Colonel Freaner, left Pierson Reading's Rancho Buena Ventura following Fremont's route through the Cow Creek and Pit River.

[17] The name was changed to Roberts in 1885 and finally to Palo Cedro in 1893, meaning "cedarwood" in Spanish, after the cedar trees of the area.

[17] In 1891, T. W. H. Shannahan and Joe Enright bought 30 acres (12 ha) of land from Lem Benton and had it divided into 12 lots.

In the early 1900s, the stage route went from Redding through Palo Cedro, Millville, Oak Run, and on to Fall River Mills.

Palo Cedro's first school house was located near the corner of Hillside Drive and Deschutes Road on the south side of town.

A two-story house on the northeast corner of Deschutes Road and Old Forty-Four Drive may, at one time, have been a stopping place for stage drivers and travelers.

In the 1960s John moved to his new building on the south east side of Palo Cedro; it had several one-story spaces for commercial businesses.

As she found the post office needed more space, it moved to a two-story building on the north side of Palo Cedro.

As Palo Cedro continued to grow more services were needed, and the first independently owned pharmacy opened in August 1975.

To accommodate its growing business, it moved to a location on the south side of Highway 44 off Deschutes Road.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 3.8 square miles (9.8 km2), 98.00% of it land, and 2.00% of it water.