Almanac of the Gods
Mount Shasta
Photo: Afinehouse · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped and resized

Place No. 27 of 44

Mount Shasta

United States (California) · 41.409° N · 122.195° W

A lone volcano rising 10,000 feet above northern California's forests, Mount Shasta is said by some to hide a jeweled city of survivors from a sunken continent.

Summit elevation
14,179 ft (4,322 m)
Topographic prominence
about 9,770 ft (2,980 m)
Volume
about 85 cubic miles, the largest stratovolcano in the Cascades
Age of oldest volcanic rock
about 593,000 years
Last confirmed eruption (USGS)
about 3,200 years ago
Eruption rate in the last 10,000 years
about one every 600 to 800 years
Named glaciers
7
Mt. Shasta Wilderness
about 37,000 acres, designated 1984

What it is

Mount Shasta is a huge, snow-capped stratovolcano at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California. It stands 14,179 feet high and rises almost alone from the surrounding land, so it dominates the view for a hundred miles. By volume it is the largest stratovolcano in the Cascades, built from four overlapping cones, including a big side cone called Shastina.

Long before settlers arrived, the mountain was sacred to the peoples who lived around it, including the Shasta, Karuk, Wintu, Achomawi and Klamath. Their stories tie it to spirit beings and to the creation of the world. Spanish and then American travelers recorded it in the early 1800s, and the first known climb to the top came in 1854. Today its upper slopes are a federal wilderness area and a magnet for climbers and skiers.

From the late 1800s on, Shasta also became a center of American mysticism. A novel written in the 1880s, A Dweller on Two Planets, placed a hidden brotherhood inside the mountain. Later writers turned that into Lemurians, survivors of a lost Pacific continent, living in an underground city now usually called Telos. In the 1930s Guy Ballard said he met the Ascended Master Saint Germain on its slopes and founded the 'I AM' movement.

The result is a mountain with a double life. To geologists it is an active volcano that is watched closely. To many spiritual seekers it is a power spot, a portal, or a home for advanced beings, and the town of Mount Shasta is full of crystal shops and retreat centers. Ancient Aliens gave it a full episode, treating it as a place where legends of hidden races and UFOs meet.

The ancient-alien case

Theorists see Shasta as a place where many strange stories stack up. In The Mystery of Mount Shasta, Giorgio Tsoukalos and David Childress note that the mountain has drawn an unusual number of mystical books and visions. They argue that Native American traditions of sacred beings on the peak may preserve memories of real encounters with visitors from elsewhere.

The most famous claim is Telos, a city of tall, long-lived Lemurians said to live in tunnels and halls beneath the mountain. On the show, William Henry and Dustin Naef discuss the idea that survivors of a lost continent retreated inside Shasta and still guard advanced knowledge there. In an earlier episode, Aliens and Mysterious Mountains, author Kathleen McGowan Coppens cited Frederick Spencer Oliver's book to suggest the mountain's interior has been inhabited by outside beings since ancient times.

Physical proof, theorists say, may once have been found. The series retells the story of J.C. Brown, a prospector who claimed in 1934 that he had found a tunnel full of treasure and giant mummified remains three decades earlier. His disappearance before he could lead a search party is treated as a clue, not a dead end.

Some theorists also point to energy. Geologist Robert Schoch has suggested the volcano could be a natural energy source, and Childress argues that magnetic and geological forces at such places might open portals to other dimensions. Locals and visitors add frequent UFO reports and the saucer-shaped lenticular clouds that often cap the summit, which some read as cover for craft coming and going.

What archaeologists say

Geologists say Shasta is an ordinary, though very large, Cascade volcano formed where one plate slides under North America. The USGS rates it a very high threat, watches it with a network of seismometers and GPS stations, and notes hot springs and gas vents near the summit. There is no sign of large open spaces inside it; the mountain is built of layered lava and ash.

Historians trace the Lemuria legend step by step. Lemuria began as a 19th-century scientific guess about a land bridge to explain animal ranges, then was taken up by Theosophists. Oliver's novel placed a hidden order inside Shasta, and the 1931 Rosicrucian book spread the story widely. Critic Jason Colavito points out that Oliver's book is mostly about Atlantis, not Lemuria, and that the show blends the two lost continents together.

The J.C. Brown tale survives only in newspaper retellings, with no find ever produced. Lenticular clouds are a well-understood weather effect, formed when moist air flows over a tall peak. Native peoples' traditions about the mountain are real and important, but scholars and tribal members caution against reading them as accounts of aliens.

Timeline

  1. c. 593,000 years agoThe oldest rocks of the Shasta volcanic system form; the current cones are much younger.
  2. c. 3,200 years agoThe most recent confirmed eruption sends block-and-ash flows down the north side, according to the USGS.
  3. 1817Spanish friar Narciso Durán makes the first known written record of the mountain.
  4. 1854Elias Pearce makes the first recorded climb to the summit.
  5. 1880s–1905Frederick Spencer Oliver writes A Dweller on Two Planets, published in 1905, describing a mystic brotherhood living in tunnels inside Shasta.
  6. 1930–1931Guy Ballard says he met Saint Germain on the mountain; Harvey Spencer Lewis of the Rosicrucian order, writing as Wishar Spenle Cerve, publishes a book that spreads the Lemuria legend.
  7. 1934A prospector known as J.C. Brown gathers a group in Stockton to find a treasure-filled tunnel he says he found in 1904, then disappears before leading them.
  8. 1976Mount Shasta is named a National Natural Landmark.
  9. 1984Congress creates the Mt. Shasta Wilderness on the upper mountain.
  10. 2021Ancient Aliens devotes an episode, The Mystery of Mount Shasta, to the mountain's legends.

Still unanswered

  • Who was J.C. Brown, what happened to him in 1934, and did he ever find anything at all?
  • Did the 'Telos' city story grow from a single source, or from several 20th-century channeled writings?
  • Was the claimed 1786 eruption, based on a ship captain's report, a real eruption or something else such as a forest fire?
  • How fast are Shasta's glaciers changing, and how will that affect climbers and water supplies below?

Did you know?

  • Shastina, the mountain's side cone, would be one of the tallest peaks in the Cascades if it stood alone.
  • Climbers on Mount Shasta must carry out their own human waste in bags, a rule meant to protect the wilderness.
  • The famous Lemuria stories began with a novel that talks mostly about Atlantis.

On Ancient Aliens

  • S06E11 Aliens and Mysterious Mountains Closes with Kathleen McGowan Coppens citing A Dweller on Two Planets to argue that beings have lived inside Shasta since ancient times.
  • S17E04 The Mystery of Mount Shasta A full episode on Telos and the Lemurians, the J.C. Brown tunnel story, and claims of portals and energy at the mountain.

Episode numbers follow Wikipedia's episode list; History and some reviewers number a few seasons differently.

Visiting

Getting there. The towns of Mount Shasta and Weed sit at the mountain's base along Interstate 5, about an hour north of Redding.

What you can see. The Everitt Memorial Highway climbs to about 8,000 feet at the Bunny Flat and upper trailhead areas. Climbers going above 10,000 feet need a summit pass, and all wilderness visitors must follow permit and pack-out rules. Panther Meadows, sacred to local tribes, opens only in summer and fall and has strict rules to protect it.

Tip. Treat the summit as a serious mountaineering climb with glaciers and rockfall, not a hike; check the Mount Shasta Avalanche Center before any trip up high.

Sources

  1. Mount Shasta (USGS Volcano Hazards Program) usgs.gov
  2. Mount Shasta (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Legends of Mount Shasta (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Mt. Shasta Wilderness (US Forest Service) fs.usda.gov
  5. Mount Shasta Inspires Another Lost Treasure Story (Jefferson Public Radio) ijpr.org
  6. Review of Ancient Aliens S17E04 'The Mystery of Mount Shasta' (Jason Colavito) jasoncolavito.com
  7. Review of Ancient Aliens 'Aliens and Mysterious Mountains' (Jason Colavito) jasoncolavito.com
  8. List of Ancient Aliens episodes (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org
Research notes: what we could not confirm
  • Correction: the old entry gave the last eruption as 1786. The USGS dates the last confirmed eruption to about 3,200 years ago; 1786 rests on a disputed sighting from La Pérouse's expedition.
  • The J.C. Brown story is known only from later retellings; details such as the number of people in his 1934 group vary by source.
  • The old entry estimated a third Shasta episode; none was found.