{"nrhp_refnum":"71000194","name":"Reading Adobe Site","other_names":["Rancho Bueica Ventiua"],"category":"site","location":{"address":"Adobe Lane, 5 mi. E of the center of Cottonwood","address_restricted":false,"city":"Cottonwood","county":"Shasta County","state":"CA","lat":40.39156827100004,"lon":-122.19991058499994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-07-14","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Historic - Aboriginal","Politics/Government"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Archaeological site of the Reading Adobe, the headquarters of Rancho Buenaventura, on Adobe Lane about five miles from Cottonwood, Shasta County, California. The adobe was built in 1847 and now survives only as a mound of earth.","why_significant":"The adobe was built by Pierson Barton Reading, a California pioneer of 1843 who received the Rancho Buenaventura grant in 1844 and is credited with discovering gold in Shasta and Trinity Counties in 1848. It served as the legal seat of Shasta County from February 1850 to February 1851 and was the site of a treaty between local Indians and U.S. Indian Agent Dr. Wozencraft. The nomination also notes that much of the foundations, floors and subsurface data remain for archaeological study.","narrative":"Reading Adobe Site, about five miles from Cottonwood in Shasta County, marks the location of the headquarters of Rancho Buenaventura. Pierson Barton Reading, who came to California in 1843, received the Mexican land grant in 1844 and built the adobe in 1847. Today a fenced enclosure of roughly 150 by 200 feet holds a shapeless earth mound, a few trees and a brick curb, with a bronze California Historical Landmark marker in front. Beneath the mound lie brick floors, hearths and the lower courses of adobe walls. The nomination argues for the site's importance on several grounds. Reading was an officer in the California Battalion, an early agricultural pioneer and the discoverer of gold in Shasta and Trinity Counties in 1848. The adobe also served as the Shasta County seat from 1850 to 1851 and hosted a treaty with local Indians in 1851. Its intact subsurface remains offer potential for historic archaeology. The county owns the site, which is not in use.","period_of_significance":"1847-68","architect_builder":"Pierson Barton Reading (builder)","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition marked as ruins and altered. The site is described as a fenced enclosure with an earth mound, brick floors and hearths, and a state landmark marker, and it is not in use. Later letters say the adobe was destroyed by vandals in 1942.","vacant_flag":true,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.283146-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/71000194.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000194/1f3dfb9164-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71000194/1f3dfb9164-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Brian Jinnett","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reading_Adobe_Site_Plaque_and_Information_Board.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Brian Jinnett</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reading_Adobe_Site_Plaque_and_Information_Board.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123861944","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_Adobe","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49548489"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/shasta-county/reading-adobe-site-71000194/"}