Long ago, a huge flow of very liquid lava spilled forth from the base of Mt. Shasta, and rolled down the Sacramento River canyon for 40 miles - incinerating and covering everything in its path with walls of lava up to 75 feet deep. Where ancestral creeks and rivers had once run, springs and waterfalls developed, including Upper Soda Springs.
We will probably never know for sure who were the first people to live here at Upper Soda Springs. However, we do know that beginning about 5000 years ago, before the pyramids in Egypt were built, people began living very near Upper Soda Springs.
We also know that at least three different cultures lived here during the past 5000 years - with each new culture replacing the old. We know as well that the people living here in the early 1800s were called the Okwanuchu. The Okwanuchu were a small mountain tribe, about whom little is known - other than they seem to have vanished completely. None of their descendants are known to be alive today.
