The county was named after Mount Shasta; the name is derived from the English equivalent for the Shasta people, the name of a Native American tribe that once lived in the area, but they were ethnically cleansed from the area in the 1850s. The name of the tribe was spelled in various ways until the present version was used when the county was established. Originally Mt. Shasta was within the county, but it is now part of Siskiyou County, to the north. Its 14,179-foot (4,322 m) peak is visible throughout most of Shasta County.