Editing Redding, California (section)

== History ==
=== Indigenous culture ===
The area is inhabited by a tribe of [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] called the [[Wintu]]. At their height, the Wintu had as many as 239 villages in the Shasta County area.<ref>{{cite book |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Papers On Wintu Ethnography : 239 Wintu Villages In Shasta County Circa 1850 |location=Redding, CA |publisher=Redding Museum and Art Center |date=1980 }}</ref>

=== Spanish and Mexican eras ===
Although Europeans had been to California as early as 1542, when [[Juan Cabrillo]] sailed to what is now [[San Diego Bay]], indigenous natives long remained the only inhabitants of the Northern California region.

The first European settlement in the area was established in 1844 by [[Pierson B. Reading]], an early [[California]] pioneer who received a [[Rancho Buena Ventura]] Mexican land grant for {{convert|26,632|acre}} that is now covered by Redding and [[Cottonwood, California]]. At the time, it was the northernmost nonnative settlement in California.

=== Gold Rush era ===
During the Gold Rush, 49ers found gold to the north on Rock, Middle and Salt creeks, near [[Shasta, California]], and to the south along Oregon and Olney creeks but the area that is now Redding was poor placer gold ground and called Poverty Flats. In 1868 the first land agent for the Central Pacific Railroad, a former Sacramento politician named [[Benjamin B. Redding]], bought property in Poverty Flats on behalf of the railroad for a northern terminus, which the tracks reached in 1872. In the process of building the terminus, the railroad also built the town of Redding which was officially incorporated on October 4, 1887. In 1888, Redding won the county seat from Shasta.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.calafco.org/docs/Cities_by_incorp_date.doc |title=California Cities by Incorporation Date |format=Word |publisher=California Association of [[Local Agency Formation Commission]]s |access-date=August 25, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141103002921/http://www.calafco.org/docs/Cities_by_incorp_date.doc |archive-date=November 3, 2014 }}</ref>

=== 20th century ===
[[File:Lorenz Hotel post card.jpg|thumb|Hotel Lorenz in the early 20th century]]
In the early twentieth century the town's economic growth was spurred by the significant copper and iron [[mining|mineral extraction]] industry nearby. The mining industry eventually declined, causing the economy and population to falter by 1920. It recovered in the thirties as the economy boomed due to the construction of [[Shasta Dam]] to the northwest. The building of the dam, which was completed in 1945, caused Redding's population to nearly double, also spurring the growth and development of other towns in the area.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cityofredding.org/about-us/brief-history-of-redding |title=Historic Redding California |access-date=August 27, 2017 |archive-date=June 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170606153157/http://www.cityofredding.org/about-us/brief-history-of-redding |url-status=dead }}</ref>
[[File:Motion picture show at the Cascade Theatre in Redding, California.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Cascade Theatre]] in 1942]]
Redding continued to grow steadily in the 1950s due to the region's growing [[logging|lumber]] industry and tourism brought about by the newly completed dam. The constructions of [[Whiskeytown Lake|Whiskeytown]] and [[Keswick Dam|Keswick dams]] also helped boost the economy by bringing new workers to the area. Interstate 5 was built during the sixties and seventies, which added to development and tourism in the region.

Growth in Redding during the 1960s and 1970s was further spurred by the annexation of an area east of the Sacramento River that included the unincorporated community of [[Enterprise, Shasta County, California|Enterprise]]; the residents voted to support the annexation primarily to acquire less expensive electricity via Redding's municipal utility, which receives power from the dam.

During the 1970s, the lumber industry suffered from decline. In the early 1990s Lumber mills in the area closed down due to the preservation of the living habitat of the Spotted Owl. This heavily impacted the Redding area. The economy picked up, due to a [[retail]] and housing boom in the late 1980s that continued until the mid-1990s.

Also in the 1970s, the Market Street Redevelopment Project, established in 1968, began the development of the Midtown Mall. The mall was established to prevent further property deterioration and to restore and maintain the economic health of the downtown area's commercial and retail activity. The mall suffered multiple difficulties. The passage of [[1978 California Proposition 13|Proposition 13]] in 1978 reduced the mall's property valuation and consequently, the city had to continuously loan money to keep the bonds for the mall's parking structure from going into default; the bonds completely repaid in 2003 and Midtown began to pay off its more than $1.5 million debt to the City of Redding. By the 1980s, the properties around the mall and along the old [[California State Highway 99|State Highway 99]]/[[California State Route 273|273]] corridor continued to suffer urban blight, including deteriorating and dilapidated utilities and structures and inappropriate mixed land uses; this required further public intervention in the form of another Market Street Redevelopment Project with significant changes to Midtown in 1990 to include a mix of residential and commercial land around the original project.<ref name="Market-Street-2009">{{Cite journal |year=2010 |title=Market Street Redevelopment Project Area |url=https://www.cityofredding.org/home/showpublisheddocument/4885/635767142171170000 |journal=Redding Redevelopment Agency Five-Year Implementation Plan 2010-2014 |access-date=April 17, 2023 |archive-date=March 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220301225826/https://www.cityofredding.org/home/showpublisheddocument/4885/635767142171170000 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== 21st century ===
Following redevelopment of Midtown, property values within the Market Street Redevelopment Project area improved; further redevelopment continued. A plan for the downtown area adopted in January 2001 led to the renovation of the historic [[Cascade Theatre]], the removal of the Midtown Mall roof creating an open air pedestrian street, the installation of a visitor way-finding system, the completion of a Health Sciences and University Center with partnership with [[Shasta College]], and the renovation of various buildings along California Street with the help of a private developer.<ref name="Market-Street-2009" />

In 2017, the city adopted a new flag after holding a redesign contest.<ref>{{cite web |title=City of Redding Flag |access-date=August 19, 2017 |url=http://reddingcityflag.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171227231311/http://reddingcityflag.com/ |archive-date=December 27, 2017 }}</ref>

The 21st century has also seen a number of devastating wildfires near and in Redding. In 1999, the [[Jones Fire (1999)|Jones Fire]] destroyed over 100 structures, followed by the [[Bear Fire (2004)|Bear Fire]] in 2004. In late July 2018, the [[Carr Fire]] in Shasta County seriously impacted the Redding area with the destruction of at least 1,100<ref>{{cite web |title=Carr Fire Incident Update 7/29/18 PM |url=http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/pub/cdf/images/incidentfile2164_3752.pdf |access-date=July 30, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180730080923/http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/pub/cdf/images/incidentfile2164_3752.pdf |archive-date=July 30, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref> buildings, with several thousand more threatened, 38,000 people instructed to evacuate and 8 deaths.<ref>{{cite news |title='Terrifying' tornadoes of flame leave 2 dead as inferno destroys Californian city of Redding |date=July 28, 2018 |access-date=July 28, 2018 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/28/two-dead-terrifying-tornados-flame-burn-california-cityredding/ |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London }}</ref> Most recently, the [[Fawn Fire]] in 2021 also resulted in the evacuation of over 4,000 people and the destruction of 185 buildings.