If you're viewing on the ABC10 App, tap here for multimedia.
The town of Shasta has a heart of gold. At its core is a living ghost town, with buildings and ruins preserved from California's gold rush days.
The old bakery on Main Street survived, even with a roof and walls made of wood. Annette Magee runs a sandwich shop in here.
“I was shocked, to be honest with you, that it was here,” Magee told ABC10.
A short walk down Main Street shows you why. The brick walls of the gold rush businesses survived. They were built for fire. But around the corner was a different scene.
“There's nothing there. And I guess that's what I'm trying to get through my head. There's nothing there,” Magee said.
She wanted to check on her neighbors, so ABC10 took a ride around the corner. We passed home after home, burned to the ground. The fire ripped through too quickly for firefighters to save everything. But crews did save most of the state park on Main Street. Including Shasta County's original 1800's courthouse.
“We do have a gallows. We have the jail downstairs. Courtroom down the hall,” said Shasta State Park Superintendent, Lori Martin.
The building is a museum now and the park staff had to evacuate it when the fire started. They took apart the display cases and loaded up trucks full of artifacts and art. With the flames approaching, they had to prioritize what stayed and what went.
“What is going to be safe for the people doing the evacuating and what will we be able to evacuate without damaging that object and causing further harm,” said Martin.
Somehow, the park only lost one of its historic buildings; an old schoolhouse. It didn't date all the way back to the gold rush, but was still a 90-year-old building and they're not sure they're going to be able to use it again.
“A lotta people would come back and say, ‘I went to the school there,’” Magee said.
Magee is still trying to make sense of why the fire took so many of her neighbor's homes, but spared her shop: Shorty's. It gave her a kind of survivor's guilt.
“But then we've had people call and say, 'How's shorty's?' You know? So, it means something to people,” Magee said.
It'll be a long road, but she expects most people here to rebuild.
“We'll be back. Don't know when, but we'll be back.”
Continue the conversation with Brandon on Facebook.