CASTELLA, CALIFORNIA

THE LAST ONE HUNDRED YEARS

1900 to 2000

Written by William Dietzel  

 

CASTELLA DOWNTOWN  1924

Castella, California is nested into the heart of the upper Sacramento River canyon, in the shadows of the great granite spires of the Castle Crag and with magnificent views of snow capped Mt Shasta. A century ago, the year 1900, the town of Castella, California was just beginning to take shape as a community. At that time the town of Castella had a population of 90 people and most of them worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad, the lumber business, mining, or the summer resorts within the area. . 

The years 1915 and 1916 were good years for Castella. Men, women and boys were employed in the mills. Mining continued to be a factor in the economy. Roads were being built toward Trinity County as well as in the canyon.  

Graduates of the Castle Rock school in 1916 were Ray­nond LaFleur, Marion Durst, Mildred Johnson, Beatrice LaFleur, and Edmond Mahon.

 Two baseball teams filled the entertainment needs in the summer. The Castle Rock Giants were Swanson, Conroy, Newkirk, Thatcher, J. Ritchie, H. Ritchie, G. Cassel, F. Cassd and Ducher. Fielded hy the Castella Tigers were Bell, W. Keyes, E Rush, F. Keyes, Stagg, Ward, Johnson, H. Rush and Henry.

 

A business directory would read something like this:

Hunting Guides: Steve Girard, Charles Loftus, Conway

Hotels: Bailey, Wickes, Mullens and Engle.

Stores: Amos Johnson, 

T.C.Bell, J.Q,A Smyth, Joe Ammirati, Volante, Spatafora.

Service Stations:

Fitzgerald, Ammirati and Spatafora). Bars: Volante, Whalen,

  Padulla, Jungle Inn owned by the family of Duge Stanford.

Water Company: First owned by C.C. Huffaere, Ammirati. 

Now a county district.  

 

Castle Crag Lumber Company

Sales - San Francisco

F.J. Solinsky - Manager

J.C. Price - - Superintendent

J.M. Chartrand - Sales Manager

Sawmill Capacity - 100,000.00 board feet

Head Saw - Band

Power - Steam and electric

Planning mill, resaw, trimmers, edgers, dry kilns,

lathe, general store, hotel and machine shop.

Species - Douglas fir, white pine, red cedar.

Lumber Mills

Castle Crag Lumber Company

Sales Office- San Francisco

F.J. Solinsky - Manager Robert Reid - Superintendent

F.J. Solinsky, Jr. Purchasing Agent

Camp Address - Castella

Sides - 2   Logging Tractors - 1 Donkey engines - 6

Motor trucks - 1

Daily output - 100, 000.00 board feet

Commissary and mess employees - 75

Logging Railroad - 16 miles

Weight 35 - 50

Locomotives - 2 air equipment

Fuel - Oil Logging trucks - 2   Flat Cars - 2 Goat cheese was

 manufactured  in Castella. Mineral water was bottled and sold. These

 are not all of the people who pioneered the business community, but are ones often mentioned.

  On September 16, 1919, fire swept through the west side of Main Street from Amos Johnson Store to D.R.  McDonnell's house. Buildings consumed by flames were Johnson Brother's store and saloon, Trinity Asbestos Mining Company warehouse, Mrs. Hazel Dale's Dewelling( Washington Bailey, owner. Hostel Castella, two-story frame dwelling occupied by Amelia Conway, Mrs. Charles Bell and George Wright, small house in the rear of Johnson Store, D.R. McDonnell, Forest Bureau building and Conway's large bard.

 

During the Depression years, a CCC camp was built on the east side of the old highway north of town. There were barracks buildings to house the 200 young men, a mess hall, headquarters for both Park Service and the Army.

 

Two-ton trucks hauled the men to their work, mostly within the boundaries of the newly-formed Castle Crags State Park. Roads, trails, campgrounds, and buildings were built by these boys who came from all over the United States. 

A dance platform in town provided Saturday night entertainment. Trucks also took the boys to Dunsmuir for movies or a trip to a snack bar. Pete Donoho of Redding said the five dollars that each young man received for himself went a long way in those days (the other $20 was sent to his family). A movie ticket was 15 or 20 cents. A hamburger cost about 20 cents. 

Of course there were the inevitable fights between the boy of the Castella camp and a camp of equal size at Sims.  

 

SODA SPRINGS PAGODA

 The freeway cut through the town and many of the buildings that had been built in the Castle Rock subdivision were destroyed. The town did not die. Two markets, Sam's and Ammirati's, are operating. There is a trailer court and a beauty shop now occupies the land where the box factory once stood.

 United States Post Office, Castella, California, became a fourth class office in 1923 and in 1968 moved to its present location presided over by Mr. Scott. It has about 350 patrons and occupies a beautiful little building beside Ammirati's Market on the hill west of town.  

 The school district is still called Castle Rock. A very nice building across the road from the old school house (still standing) houses 73 students. Four teachers, plus a part-time music teacher, serve under Principal. Grades kindergarten through eight are taught there. High school stu­dents are bussed to Dunsmuir.  

Beside the Sacramento River, the Old Bailey Spring still bubbles forth the famous mineral water from a cement encasement. Campers fish along the banks of the rivers where Bailey once bridged the stream for travelers to cross to his hotel. This is now a lovely picnic ground of the Castle Crags State Park.   

With but few exceptions, the inhabited part of Castella in 1927 stretched the distance of no farther than 1/4 of a mile on main street. The two story wood framed buildings of the Shasta View Hotel, Basham's General Store, Amos Johnson's Mercantile Cash Store and Barber Shop with the Hotel Castella on the second floor, provided lodging and supplies. Then the United States Post Office, Castella Library, and Mike Padlua's Saloon, a two-story structure built against the hill, this was the last remaining building in town to the South. Also on the road and the Castella Loop was Ammirati's Grocery Store and Boarding House: the Engle Inn Resort, Inn Resort, Crag View Resort across the river, Lancone's Grocery Store and Service Station. Castella was a thriving community of many businesses.  

 On the other side of the road, across from Mike Padlua's Saloon was the "Castella Train Station" and the freight loading platforms. Passengers coming from the Sacramento valley for a week end trip or a summer vacation at one of the many resorts in the area would unload from the "Castella Flyer" a Southern Pacific railroad train car named for the town of Castella. ,  

On the riverside of the Castella tracks is were most he residents lived. The Southern Pacific Railroad had built a line of identical houses on the river side of the tracks- all painted Southern Pacific Yellow, each with a splendid and different garden. The residents had names like Reginato, Perotti, and Vallenti, most of then worked in the lumber business or for the railroad. 

   

As you crossed the tracks from Castella the road continued to the Crag View Resort bridge Now the Castle Crags River Resort. Here the beautiful tall cedar, maple and pine trees lined the river frontage of the twisting rock banks of the Sacramento River, which offered the finest rainbow trout fishing in the world.  The abundance of birds and wildlife moved within the peace and tranquility atmosphere of Castella, California and thus the beginning of a new century. 1900. 

William and Katie Mullen owned and operated a boarding house in Castella and  depended on the business of the packers who hauled supplies by mule to the mines and lumber camps in the mountains.