REAL WORLD : The first permanent settler in the area was Pierson Reading, who received the Rancho Buena Ventura land grant in 1844. At the time it was the northernmost Angelo settlement in California.

The town of Redding was established by the Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1870s when they built their rail network through the Sacramento Valley.

RESOLUTE : Pierson was a follower of John Sutter – but watched carefully and learned how the real winner was the man who sold the picks and pans. When he got the land grant along the Cottonwood Creek, he built a town to support and encourage the mining trade in the northern Sierras.

Reading’s old friend James W Marshall has also moved to Shasta County, and is one of the prominent citizens in one of the biggest towns along the northern Sacramento River.