Mount Shasta is a city located in Siskiyou County, California located at around 3,600 ft. As of the 2000 Census the city had a total population of 3,621. The town is only about 10 miles southwest of Mount Shasta, a prominent northern California landmark.

The site of present-day Mount Shasta City was within the range of the Okwanuchu tribe of Native Americans. During the 1820s, early Euro-American trappers and hunters first passed through the area, following the path of the Siskiyou Trail. The Siskiyou Trail was based on a network of ancient Native American footpaths connecting California and the Pacific Northwest.

The discovery of gold at nearby Yreka, California in 1851, dramatically increased traffic along the Siskiyou Trail and through the site of present-day Mount Shasta. Pioneer Ross McCloud built one of the first lumber mills in the area, near the site of the present Sisson Museum.

The completion of a stagecoach road between Yreka and Upper Soda Springs in the late 1850s led to the building of Sisson's Hotel, as a stop for weary travelers, and as a staging ground for adventuresome tourists intending to climb Mount Shasta.

The 1887 completion of the Central Pacific Railroad, built along the line of the Siskiyou Trail, brought a dramatic increase in tourism, lumbering, and population into Mount Shasta. This early development continued to focus on tourism and lumbering.

With Mount Shasta to the east forcing moisture out of the air as it ascends and cools, and the dip in the Klamath Mountains allowing more moisture to reach inland, Mount Shasta gets more precipitation than the semiarid region to the north. This means that in the winter, Mount Shasta gets 104" of snowfall despite its low 3,600 ft. elevation. In comparison, points in the region around this elevation get much less snow than Mount Shasta, like Weed, which gets only 20". Winters are generally cool to cold and summers are quite hot due to the continential climate of this region.

The area where the town later grew up was known first as Strawberry Valley, and then as Berryvale. With the arrival of the railroad, the town was given the name Sisson, California, after prominent land owner Justin Sisson. The name was changed to Mount Shasta City in 1924.