The Jefferson Agrarian

http://www.siskiyous.edu/shasta/art/

Foreword by William C. Miesse:

“This present study attempts to put Mount Shasta within this context of the rediscovery of California’s profound history of art and artists. As it turns out, Mount Shasta was almost in a class by itself as an early California image. Its beauty and awesome size were unmatched by any other mountain in California. From 1841 on, literally scores of major and minor American and California artists visited the mountain and produced images of Mount Shasta for readers and art patrons throughout the state and country. During the 19th century Mount Shasta became a nationwide symbol of the majestic wild places still left untouched in an already industrialized America.

Today, it is not only a nostalgia, but a realization that these wild places really do exist, and that they are right here in California, that makes people so interested in the early art of California. As one writer for a recent art magazine put it, “California is in the process of discovering itself”. Hopefully this present study will give those who know the Mount Shasta region a chance to see it as others before them have seen it.”