Castle Crags
Encyclopedia
Castle Crags is a dramatic and well-known rock formation
Rock formations in the United States
The following is a partial list of rock formations in the United States, by state:-Arizona:*Canyon de Chelly National Monument**Spider Rock*Chiricahua National Monument**Duck on a Rock**Organ Pipe**Mushroom Rock**Sea Captain*Monument Valley...

 in Northern California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. Although the mountains of Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...

 consist largely of rocks of volcanic and sedimentary origin, granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 bodies (plutons
Intrusion
An intrusion is liquid rock that forms under Earth's surface. Magma from under the surface is slowly pushed up from deep within the earth into any cracks or spaces it can find, sometimes pushing existing country rock out of the way, a process that can take millions of years. As the rock slowly...

) intruded many parts of the area during the Jurassic
Jurassic
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Mya to  Mya, that is, from the end of the Triassic to the beginning of the Cretaceous. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the age of reptiles. The start of the period is marked by...

 period. Heavy glaciation at this location during the Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

 eroded much of the softer surrounding rock leaving the towering crag
Cliff
In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually...

s and spires exposed, from which the Castle Crags pluton derives its name. Exfoliation
Exfoliation (geology)
Exfoliation joints or sheet joints are surface-parallel fracture systems in rock often leading to erosion of concentric slabs.- General characteristics of exfoliation joints :* Commonly follow topography ....

 of huge, convex slabs of granite yielded rounded forms such as the prominent Castle Dome feature of Castle Crags. Elevations range from 2000 feet along the Sacramento River
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River is an important watercourse of Northern and Central California in the United States. The largest river in California, it rises on the eastern slopes of the Klamath Mountains, and after a journey south of over , empties into Suisun Bay, an arm of the San Francisco Bay, and...

 near the base of the crags to over 6500 feet at the summit of the tallest crag.

Situated along an ancient trade and travel route known as the Siskiyou Trail
Siskiyou Trail
The Siskiyou Trail stretched from California's Central Valley to Oregon's Willamette Valley; modern-day Interstate 5 follows this pioneer path...

, Castle Crags has witnessed dramatic events. Strained relationships between 1850s California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...

 miners and the local native Indian populations resulted in the 1855 Battle of Castle Crags, in which the poet Joaquin Miller
Joaquin Miller
Joaquin Miller was the pen name of the colorful American poet Cincinnatus Heine Miller , nicknamed the "Poet of the Sierras".-Early years and family:...

 was wounded, and which he later described in an essay of the same name. Exploitation of the land by lumber and mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 operations encouraged concerned citizens in 1933 to acquire much of the land, which would eventually become Castle Crags State Park, however much of the crags themselves are within the Shasta-Trinity National Forest
Shasta-Trinity National Forest
The Shasta-Trinity National Forest is a federally designated forest in northern California, USA. It is the largest National Forest in California and is managed by the United States Forest Service. The 2.2-million acre forest encompasses five wilderness areas, hundreds of mountain lakes and of...

, managed by the U.S. Forest Service, and are part of the Castle Crags Wilderness
Castle Crags Wilderness
The Castle Crags Wilderness is a wilderness area located 40 miles north of Redding, California within the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The US Congress passsd the California Wilderness Act in 1984 which set aside the wilderness...

 Area.

Located just west of Interstate 5
Interstate 5
Interstate 5 is the main Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific Ocean coastline from Canada to Mexico . It serves some of the largest cities on the U.S...

, between the towns of Castella
Castella, California
Castella is a small, unincorporated town of 240 in the upper Sacramento Canyon of Shasta County, California. It is located 46 miles north of Redding on Interstate 5, and is home to Castle Crags State Park. It has a Chevron gas station/store and a post office. The ZIP Code is 96017...

 and Dunsmuir
Dunsmuir, California
Dunsmuir is a city in Siskiyou County, California, United States. The population was 1,650 at the 2010 census, down from 1,923 at the 2000 census. It is currently a hub of tourism in Northern California as visitors enjoy fishing, skiing, climbing, or sight-seeing...

, Castle Crags is today a popular tourist stop along the highway.

Among native species is the Castle Crags ivesia (Ivesia longibracteata)
Ivesia longibracteata
Ivesia longibracteata is a rare species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common name Castle Crags ivesia. It is endemic to Shasta County, California, where it is known only from Castle Crags...

, a plant which is endemic to Castle Crags.

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