Redding

Understand

History

Redding was founded as Poverty Flats in 1868 during the gold rush, by a former Sacramento mayor named Benjamin Bernard Redding. He built property in the area so that the Central Pacific Railroad could build a train terminal there. While building the terminal they built the city in the same area, naming it Redding after Benjamin Redding.

Since then the town has gone through various periods of rapid growth, followed by slow downs and then more growth. In the early 20th century Redding had a thriving copper and iron extraction industry. However the town struggled in the twenties with the decline of the mining sector. It came back in the 1930s though and boomed in the 1940s due to the construction of Shasta Dam, which caused the population to nearly double. In the 1950s, the area stayed prosperous thanks to the growing lumber industry and tourism that the dam brought. Interstate 5 was built during the 1960s and 1970s. Further helping the surrounding areas economy.

Redding started to decline again in the early 1980s because of the stricter logging regulations put in place by the federal government that essentially crippled the logging industry. The town continued a slow decline throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s.

It has had a slight economic resurgence due to increased business from people visiting the megachurch there.

Visitor information

Get in

By car

• Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north-south road through Redding, going as far north as Blaine, Washington (near Bellingham) to San Ysidro, California (a community of San Diego). Redding is accessed from Exit 675 to 682 of I-5.
• Highway 44 is the main road to Lassen Volcanic National Park, stretching from Redding in the west to Highway 89 in the east. Many Redding locals go to Lassen National Park using this road in the summer, so that's when it is most crowded. Other times, parts of it are closed due to snow. Goes into downtown as Shasta St (WB) to Pine St and Tehama St (EB) from Market St.
• Market St serves as a 'business loop' of I-5 from Exit 681B, through Redding and Anderson as a local road, and rejoins back to I-5 at Exit 667 south of Anderson.
• Eureka Way is Redding's main link to the coast (namely Arcata) and to northeastern California (Modoc County). It is, however, one of the less-traveled roads because it is very narrow with very sharp curves much of the way.

By train

• Route stopping in Redding:

• Coast Starlight operates daily between Seattle and Los Angeles. Stops include Tacoma, Lacey, Centralia, Kelso, Vancouver, WA, Portland, Salem, Albany, Eugene, Klamath Falls, Dunsmuir, Redding, Chico, Sacramento, Davis, Martinez, San Francisco (Emeryville), Oakland, San Jose, Salinas, Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Oxnard, Simi Valley, Van Nuys, and Burbank. The southbound train arrives at 2:21AM and the northbound train arrives at 3:06AM, but delays are quite common too.

By bus

RABA Transportation Terminal, is Redding's central bus station for the local city buses (RABA) and other bus lines. The station is at 1530 Yuba St next to the Amtrak Station. It is served by:

By plane

The next nearest airports for commercial flights with additional airlines are in Medford (MFR) located 152 mi to the north, and in Sacramento (SMF) located 154 mi to the south. Both are directly accessed from the I-5 corridor.

Get around

By bus

RABA (Redding Area Bus Authority) is the city bus line in Redding. It also has routes that go to Burney and Anderson. Their central terminal is at 1530 Yuba Street which is also the place to catch the Amtrak bus and the Greyhound (see "By bus" in the above under "Get In").

By bicycle

Drivers generally cooperate with bicyclists on major roads, but that rule changes dramatically with smaller, less-traveled roads. Other than that, follow the same guidelines on a bicycle as you would in any other city.

By taxi

Stay safe

Like many midsize American towns, Redding is fairly safe overall as long as you plan properly and take the same precautions everyone should while traveling in a new place. Although there are no truly unsafe places in Redding, care should still be taken when visiting certain areas of town. For instance, the South Market Street area, including South City Park and The Shasta County Library can be problematic depending. There are also sort of bad areas by Enterprise School. Again though, they are not any more unsafe than comparable lower income neighborhoods in other midsize cities.

Go next

• Shasta - approximately 6 mi west of downtown Redding on Highway 299, Shasta is a Gold Rush-era ghost town, that features an admission free courthouse museum, ruins of several brick buildings, 19th-century cemeteries, short trails, a picnic area, and occasional living history demonstrations.
• Anderson - approximately 10 mi south of Redding on Interstate 5, Anderson is a commercial shopping area with many stores.