Those that stayed worked the placer gold diggings of nearby, short-lived camps like Horsetown, Buckeye, and Whiskeytown, California.

Situated about six miles (10 km) west of Redding, California along Highway 299, Shasta was once home to some 3,500 residents, the county seat, and a thriving commercial district.

By the twentieth century, and after several fires, a distinctive row of gold rush era buildings remained along its Main Street, which attracted preservationists and their efforts to save all the local stories and landscape, and the remaining first generation of 1850s brick and iron door architecture.

[6][7] In this book, Miller describes his brief imprisonment in a Shasta jail for horse-stealing and subsequent escape with the aid of his Native American wife.

[8] According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP covers an area of 11.0 square miles (28.4 km2), 99.96% of it land and 0.04% of it water.

There were 782 housing units at an average density of 71.2 per square mile (27.5/km2), of which 621 (85.9%) were owner-occupied, and 102 (14.1%) were occupied by renters.

[13] Federally, Shasta is in California's 1st congressional district, represented by Republican Doug LaMalfa.