Founded in 1849 as Reading's Springs and named Shasta on June 8, 1850, Shasta became the second county seat of Shasta County from 1851 to 1888 and was the metropolis of Northern California during the 1850s. Until 1861 it stood at the end of the road and the beginning of the Oregon Pack Trail. The Western Star Lodge No. 2, F. and A.M., has its present home there, and its charter was brought across the plains by the Peter Lassen Party in 1848. The Shurtleff House was built in 1851, the business section was destroyed by fire in 1853, and the Shasta Courier was founded in 1852.