History
Discovering Ancient Volcanic Wonders in California’s McCloud: The Future National Monument
If you’re looking to escape the hustle and bustle of city life, Medicine Lake in McCloud, Siskiyou County, is your perfect destination. Nestled in the crater of an ancient volcano approximately 350 miles north of San Francisco, this geologically unique and spiritually significant area is a haven of peace.
Medicine Lake is a pristine body of water surrounded by a forested shoreline and distinct lava formations. The U.S. Forest Service manages the remote highlands and is currently at the center of a campaign to make them California’s next national monument. This designation would ensure greater protections for the property northeast of Mount Shasta and raise its profile among America’s public lands.
The push for the roughly 200,000-acre monument in Siskiyou County and a sliver of Modoc County is being led by Northern California’s Pit River Tribe. The effort has won support from several conservation groups and, recently, the Newsom administration. However, the White House, which holds the authority to design the monument, has not publicly discussed the proposal.
The Medicine Lake Highlands, or Sáttítla in the vocabulary of the Indigenous community, is a place of supernatural powers for many Native Americans across Northern California, including the Pit River, Modoc, Shasta, Karuk, and Wintu peoples. It is a place where they come for prayer and ritual, and they have a deep connection with the land.
The human history here is tied to the area’s otherworldliness. According to tribal member Monica Super, “It’s the first place I ever had a divine cultural intervention. It happened there on the banks of the lake during the ceremony.” One of the continuing traditions of Super’s Pit River Tribe is an ancestral run between Mount Shasta and Mount Lassen through the highlands. The participants sometimes stop to soak in the reputed healing waters of Medicine Lake, at 6,770 feet elevation, or its adjacent sibling, Little Medicine Lake.
Aside from its spiritual significance, the Medicine Lake Highlands is also an area of fiery past and geological wonder. Evidence of the region’s volcanic activity is visible in every direction. Hardened flows of lava span nearby for miles across treeless hillsides, displaying striking outcroppings of obsidian, rhyolite, and other volcanic rock. NASA astronauts used pumice fields here to train for moon landings. Several cave openings dotted the unusual terrain, exposing lava tubes bored by volcanic vents and flowing molten rock in a maze of underground pathways. Caving is popular among those who visit.
The underlying Medicine Lake volcano, whose history of lava flows and gas expulsions chiseled the landscape, is likely the largest volcano, by volume, in the Cascade Range, which includes such giants as Mount Saint Helens and Mount Rainier, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The mountain’s most recent eruption was about 950 years ago.
The primary motivation for the monument drive is to cement the end of a decades-old fight to prevent geothermal energy development here. While the Pit River Tribe has succeeded, through litigation, at keeping the federal government from extending leases for energy exploration and potential power production, the possibility exists, however unlikely, of the leases being reactivated.
Geothermal drilling, critics say, would not only scar the landscape but threaten water quality in aquifers that feed the Fall and Pit rivers and, eventually, Shasta Lake, the largest reservoir in California.
The designation of a national monument would restrict industrial activities, providing more excellent protection for the land and its spiritual and geological significance.
The campaign for the Medicine Lake Highlands is just one of at least three other petitions for monument status in California. A 660,000-acre Chuckwalla National Monument is being proposed in the Southern California desert. There are expansions of two existing monuments — Berryessa Snow Mountain between Napa and Mendocino counties and the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles.
Whether a national monument is established depends on several factors, one of which is support from local communities and their political representatives. A handful of officeholders from both political parties contacted by the Chronicle said they were still reviewing the proposal.
If you’re looking for an adventure and want to discover California’s ancient volcanic wonders, McCloud and the Medicine Lake Highlands are must-visit destinations. You’ll be transported to a place of peace, where you can connect with the land, explore the unique geological features, and learn about the area’s cultural and spiritual significance. So why not embark on a journey to discover this potential national monument?
