Nostalgia & History > The town under Lake Shasta

The Town of Kennett had a population of 3000 at one time and was the biggest town between Redding and Dunsmuir. The SP spelled it with one "T" but the town name had two. This 1905 Postcard shows just how big the town was. The Depot is at bottom center above the word Kennett. Signors 2ND Shasta book has a better photo of the depot on pg. 61
Dave

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It was quite a town. Note how all the hill sides are bare of trees from the process of open roasting the copper ore when smelting which caused large amounts of sulfur to go into the air and kill all the vegetaion. Farmers as far away as Red Bluff complained about the air spoiling their crops.

So I assume this one of those controlled floods for a reservoir?

And they buy everyone out and everything is taken that can be hauled out. And other things like superstructures of building etc are just flooded right?

And hopefully there isn't anything left that is harmful to end up in drinking water? <G>

When they built Shasta Dam, Kennet was pretty much a ghost town and the surrounding area looked more like a war zone from the smelting. So nobody was too sad when in all went under.

Probably not much difference from the current appearance of the hills around Butte and Anaconda

sp4294 Wrote:
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> It was quite a town. Note how all the hill sides
> are bare of trees from the process of open
> roasting the copper ore when smelting which caused
> large amounts of sulfur to go into the air and
> kill all the vegetaion. Farmers as far away as Red
> Bluff complained about the air spoiling their
> crops.


The same thing happened in Sudbury, Ontario from Inco's nickel smelting operations. Take a drive along the Trans-Canada Highway and you notice the definite lack of vegetation.

IIRC, astronauts from the Apollo program used the Sudbury area for training (as a simulated lunar environment).

Hmmmm, time for some rain or maybe this place will rise again out of the mud!

sphogger

Interesting photo, I've heard about the church steeple showing when the water is low, is that the church in the center of the photo? The RR part of town has an interesting look to it.

The Sacramento River is running through Lakehead without any sign of the lake from the I-5 bridge. The Pit River I-5 Bridge still shows a lake but it's very far down. I seem to remember the lake being dry at that crossing during the 78 drought, which was when the town-site and steeple could be seen. In normal years folks using diving equipment to visit the church and steeple.

Somewhat related article about Mercury mining and processing in the area, on the Trinity side though:
http://www.mtshastanews.com/news/x1464869169