The Shasta Cascade region of California is located in the northeastern and north-central sections of the state bordering Oregon and Nevada,[1] including far northern parts of the Central Valley[citation needed] and the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

The first non-Native Americans entered the Shasta Cascade region by coming south along the Siskiyou Trail from Oregon, or north along the Siskiyou Trail from central California or the San Francisco Bay Area.

The discovery of gold in 1851 at Yreka (and throughout Siskiyou and Trinity counties) brought the California Gold Rush-era prospectors up the rivers of the region in search of gold, leading to the first non-Native American settlements in the area, including at Old Shasta, Portuguese Flat, Upper Soda Springs, Weaverville, and Yreka itself.

The civic "capital" of the Shasta Cascade area is Redding; other cities and towns are Alturas, Biggs, Chico, Susanville, Dunsmuir, Mount Shasta, Red Bluff, Oroville, Paradise, Weed, Fall River Mills, Burney, and Yreka.

Geologically, this region is similar to the main Cascade Range, dominated by volcanism.