Anderson and Bella Vista Railroad

California, Shasta and Eastern Railway, Inc.
Ruin of a 1925 Concrete pier on the Sacramento River

The California, Shasta and Eastern Railway was a 15 miles (24 km) shortline railroad which operated, for nearly 40 years, between Anderson and Bella Vista, California with no greater aspirations then being a glorified mill spur. Briefly around 1906 however, the road basked in the limelight of the mighty E.H. Harriman who considered, and then discarded, the idea of incorporating it into one of his "paper" railroads projected through the region.

The roots of this operation date back to 1884 when the Morris brothers began construction of a flume from the rich timber belt near Round Mountain about 35 miles (56 km) northeast of Redding on the Little Cow Creek drainage to a point below the snow belt. From here, sawn boards were transported by wagons to the railhead. Ownership passed to Joseph Enright of Chico, who extended the flume (up to 32 miles (51 km)) to a planing mill, drying shed, and box factory he erected where Little Cow Creek and Dry Creek join to form Cow Creek. The community around the operation became known as Bella Vista.

The bottleneck of the operation was the transfer of the lumber from the mill at Bella Vista to the nearest rail connection, which was 10 miles (16 km) away in Redding and on the wrong side of the Sacramento River. Clearly, a standard gauge shortline railroad would need to be constructed. In about 1891, work began on the Anderson & Bella Vista Railroad down the valley of Cow Creek to the Southern Pacific rail connection in Anderson.

Little grading was required, the only major obstacle being the crossing of the Sacramento River north of Anderson which was originally done with a ferry. The top heavy arrangement of the ferry proved to be fatal for the railroad's first locomotive. A diminutive 4-4-0 named J.C. Kellog which one day fell into the river never to be recovered. The locomotive is still there; it was discovered again during construction of a new road bridge across the river, next to the old one. Following this incident, the railroad opted to build a trestle instead. There are plans to raise the loco.