The Dunsmuir Municipal-Mott Airport

has been recognized in the past by many of California’s wealthy and aristocratic families, who have made the Dunsmuir/Mt. Shasta area a well-known seasonal retreat, known for its pure water, its many picturesque waterfalls and forests, its abundant recreational amenities, and most especially its pristine rivers, home to a world-class trout fishery. “It started off with hunters and trappers coming through the area in the early 1800s, and got developed as a town around 1890, when the Central Pacific Railroad developed a rail hub here in Dunsmuir to run up and down the west coast,” Juhasz recounts. Among the well- to-do San Francisco families who have had a connection to the area are: William Randolph Hearst, who occupied an 67,000-acre estate called Wyntoon, named after a local Native American tribe; August Schilling, the “spice king,” who was a long-standing member of the McCloud River Club; and today, the Fisher family, which owns the Gap clothing empire, and has three Pilatus aircraft that use the Airport regularly to access the renowned private club on the McCloud River, which it now owns. “Alexander Dunsmuir, who was the son of a British Columbian coal baron, named Robert Dunsmuir, offered to purchase a fountain for the city as long as it renamed it in his honor,” Juhasz adds. “That fountain has been moved to a ballfield here – one that Babe Ruth took a liking to. He spent time here and carried on exhibition games. So, it’s a tourist town with a rich history.” “Recreation is what is going to keep this place alive,” says Doctor Edward Miller an orthopedic surgeon from Mt. Shasta and member of the Dunsmuir Airport Advisory Committee. “The second thing that is going to keep it going is that, in these days of working away from home, it’s a very good place to get away from COVID-19. Juhasz agrees: “We have a lot of people up here who have moved out of the Bay area,” he reports. “It’s a prime place to get away, and if you have the money and the means to work remotely, it’s