Photo taken October 2005
Lake Shasta is the largest lake in California with 365 miles of shore line, more than San Francisco Bay. At capacity the lake holds 4.5 million acre feet of water, that's about 5,000 gallons for every inhabitant of the United States. Lake Shasta was created by the completion of Shasta Dam in 1945.
Shasta Dam is the second largest concrete dam in the U.S. Shasta Dam has the highest spillway in the world, three times higher than Niagara Falls. The spillway is larger than six football fields. When water flows over the spillway, it creates the tallest man-made waterfall in the world. The dam contains enough concrete to build a sidewalk 3 feet wide, 4 inches thick around the world at the equator. Workers poured concrete 24 hours a day, seven days a week for five years. A total of 2,348 miles of one inch pipe carried cooled water through the concrete which otherwise would have taken 150 years to cure. Shasta Dam is 602 feet tall, 883 thick at the base, and is 3,460 feet long at the crest. It contains 6,541,000 cubic yards of concrete.
Fifty miles to the north is Mount Shasta, at 14,161 feet tall, it's the second tallest volcano in the lower 48 states. But it is considered the largest in size with a 17-mile diameter and about 80 cubic miles in volume.
The city of Shasta Lake is relatively young as cities go, it was incorporated in 1993. With a population of less than ten thousand, it is a small town. An interesting note, all of Shasta County has fewer residents than the city of Modesto.
On September 11, 2003 the city dedicated its 9/11/01 Memorial. The Memorial features a piece of steel from the World Trade Center, that was given to the City of Shasta Lake.
See the Next Page for pictures after the snow storm of December 2003, as well as the 8" of hail received in March 2004.
