Clear Creek

Shasta County August 29, 1993

Lets take a ride on the Reading; from Bell’s Bridge we go a mile south on highway 273 to where gold was first discovered here in 1848 by Pierson B. Reading (1818-1868)…..actually, Native Americans working for their land grant owner found it for him and got little or nothing. But as it pans out, the Win River Casino sits on this very spot, now raking it in by the neglected Clear Creek landmark, Oh, the irony.

NoeHill photo

Reading was one of the first visitors to Marshall’s discovery and it gave him the idea that gold could likely be found on his land grant along the Trinity River. In these early days of discovery, the easiest place to look was in the collections of river sands and gravel called bars, especially when water levels were lower.

You’d think this town of Redding derived its name from Mr. Reading but it didn’t. Well, it didn’t, then it did, then it didn’t. From 1874 to 1880 they called it Reading in honor of him, but the railroad would not recognize the name change from one of their own, former Sacramento mayor and railroad man; Benjamin B. Redding. So the town went back to the name of Redding  This all happened before Monopoly existed, which course would have squared everything away and named the railroad man Reading. Either way, both surnames were better than what the miners originally called the place…..Horsetown.


Plaque inscription: NO. 78 CLEAR CREEK - Five miles up the creek, at Reading's Bar, is the site of the discovery of gold by Major Pierson B. Reading and his Indian laborers in 1848.
Location: Old Hwy 99 and

Canyon Rd, S Redding

Google maps: 40.504533,-122.379305