Nostalgia & History > Heritage at Hotlum

Three years after Union Pacific took over Southern Pacific, there's little change visible in this image of a westbound lumber drag on the Shasta Route. This photo was shot September 26, 1999 at Hotlum, California in Siskiyou County. The siding was named for a glacier on Mt. Shasta. 

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Hotlum is a funny name for a glacier.  You'd think they would have called Coldlum. 

There were other languages in the area for many thousands of years before English speaking people showed up.

From The Mt. Shasta Book: A Guide to Hiking, Climbing, Skiing, and Exploring the Mountain and Surrounding Area by Andy Selters and Michael Zanger, John Wesley Powell named the glaciers on Shasta. They wrote “Powell was a brilliant scholar who collected over two dozen dictionaries of Native American languages and dialects. During 1879 he came to northern California to study the Wintun tribe, and climbed Mt. Shasta on November 1, 1879. Afterward, he named Shasta’s four other major glaciers with Wintun words in honor of the tribe: Hotlum (‘steep’), Bolam (‘big’ or ‘great’), Konwakiton (‘muddy’), and Wintun (the tribal name). The names were inscribed in official records maintained by the US Geographic Board in 1897.”

Thanks for posting the photo!

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Posted from iPhone

Thanks for the history lesson Jeff.  That area sure looks different today!  Nice shot btw Greg, thanks for sharing.

Kent in CArmel Valley

ExStarlightHog Wrote:

> You'd think they would have called Coldlum. 

That's probably the name of the nearby lava flow...