CALIFORNIA WONDERLAND

Author's Personal Collection

According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel in 1902 the proprietors of Big Trees Grove boasted of “a tree which has a rift in it through which two horses and a surrey can be driven without touching either side, similar to the famous tree in the Calaveras Grove through which a stage coach has been driven, with the exception that the tree in our Big Tree grove has not been trimmed or hewn in any way to increase its aperture.” 

Author's Personal Collection

The only tree at the grove which comes close to this description is the Natural Graft Tree along the Redwood Loop Trail (trail guide marker #3). The Natural Graft is composed of fire scarred redwoods, two of which are joined high up by a natural graft. In more recent years it was also referred to as the Triple Burn Tree. It may also have been the tree described earlier as the Driveway Tree.

Author's Personal Collection

The article further stated that any “… person who comes to these trees and gives them a hurried visit can form no comprehension of their wonderful beauties and attractions, and half a day can be spent with profit and interest looking over these natural wonders ... That group of Big Trees – the subject of private ownership, with interests as sacredly vested as any man can have in property – are one of the principal attractions to Santa Cruz. How many tourists would come to Santa Cruz in the winter time from the East were it not for these Big Trees? How many people would come to Santa Cruz to enjoy our superb summer climate, were not these trees on the lists of attractions?"   

Note: The tree at the Calaveras Grove with the man-made aperture cut in the 1880s was the Pioneer Cabin Tree, a giant sequoia, which unfortunately fell in a storm in 2017. The most famous giant sequoia with such an man-made opening was the Wawona Tree in Yosemite's Mariposa Grove which fell during a snowstorm in 1969.

Source: “The Felton Big Tree Grove,” Santa Cruz Sentinel, August 20, 1902.