I think even when I was 5 years old I realized I wanted to live in the Mt. Shasta area

 I found it to be the happiest place for me even when I was 5. Why?

Because my first experience there was going to Castle Lake at 6000 feet with my father and some of his friends. I realized then in 1953 how amazingly beautiful and wonderful this place was even in 1953 when I was 5. 

Then we were staying at Shasta Springs which once was a fancy resort that President Theodore Roosevelt even visited by Train in the early 1900s

Here is what Google AI says about his visit to Shasta Springs:

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President Theodore Roosevelt visited the historic Shasta Springs resort in Northern California on May 30, 1903. The stop was part of his extensive 1903 western tour where he famously camped in Yosemite with John Muir. During his time at Shasta Springs, he notably visited the resort's massive trees and took in the mountain scenery. 

If you are researching his other stops in the area, he visited nearby Burney Falls on the same tour, famously calling it the "eighth wonder of the world". 

• Burney Falls, a dramatic 129-foot waterfall in Shasta County that ...

  May 3, 2026 — Burney Falls was once declared the "eighth wonder of the world" by President Teddy Roosevelt Burney Falls, located in McArthur-Bur...

  

  

  Facebook·San Francisco Chronicle
• CAMPING WITH JOHN AND TEDDY - The Attic

  Aug 23, 2018 — THE WEST — 1903 — Of the sprawling buffalo herds that once roamed the Plains, just 1,000 animals remain. Half of America's old gro...

  

  

  www.theattic.space
• Theodore Roosevelt - John Muir Exhibit - Sierra Club

  May 15, 2003 — In 1903, Roosevelt visited Muir in Yosemite. Guided into the Yosemite wilderness by naturalist John Muir, the president went on a ...

  

  

  Sierra Club

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