[2] It is native to Sheepheaven Creek, Siskiyou County, California, United States.
[5] Sheepheaven Creek redband are found to be the most distinct anatomically among all other western North American trout[specify] groups, and therefore has been suggested to merit recognition as a new subspecies.
[2][6][7] A key diagnostic character is that they have the fewest gill rakers of any western trout.
[8] Sheepheaven Creek is used as the type locality of O. m. calisulat Campbell and Conway 2023,[9] a taxon restricted in distribution the McCloud River drainage upstream of McCloud Falls.
In this taxonomic scheme, Sheepheaven Creek is one of several genetically pure populations of a distinctive lineage of rainbow trout.