Pierson B. Reading settled on a large land grant in Shasta County in the 1840s, planting CaliforniaA[a¬a[s first cotton and northern CaliforniaA[a¬a[s first grapevines on his Rancho Buena Ventura, which included the current town of Redding. Although first nicknamed Poverty Flats by the early settlers, the Southern Pacific Railroad chose this spot for its turnaround roundhouse in 1872, ignoring the neighboring mining boomtown of Shasta. To honor a powerful Sacramento politician who acted as their general land agent, the railroad named the new town Redding.