THE FREMONT GROUP

Map of the Fremont Group located at the midway point of the current Redwood Loop Trail. The big trees remain but the hotel structures and the Arcade (a redwood gazebo) are long gone. The star refers to one of the Three Sisters which fell during a storm in 1915. Since then it's been known as the Fallen Sister.

The Fremont Group denoted the trees adjacent to the Big Trees Grove hotel: the Fremont Tree, Jumbo and the Three Sisters. This was the original rail tourist entrance to Big Trees Grove. The Fremont Group location is now the back of the grove at the midway point of the current Redwood Loop Trail. In addition to the hotel complex, an array of picnic tables and rustic seats were once located within the Fremont Group. The most notable amenity which once welcomed tourists here was an outdoor bar erected at the base of the Three Sisters.

"The gigantic big trees are one mile from the village [Felton]. This grove has countless trees from eight to twelve feet in diameter, and many much larger ... the ‘General Fremont,’ named from the fact that a General by that name [supposedly] camped within a hollow at its base, is 275 feet in height, and measures forty-eight feet* in circumference. The base of this tree is hollow from the ground fifteen feet up, and has been worked and chiseled out into a large room,** with two windows and a door, in which, in early days, a family of four persons has kept house. Within the apartment at the present time are the cards of thousands of visitors pinned to the walls."

"The ‘Three Sisters’ stand near-by, with a height of 200 feet, and from thirty to sixty-five feet in circumference. The sisters are very grateful and sublime in appearance. ‘Jumbo’ keeps them company, and with his [monstrous] body protects the sisters from harm. He measures twenty-two feet in diameter, forty-seven feet* in circumference, and stands 270 feet. This tree derived its name from the fact that a large knot, the exact shape of an elephant’s head and trunk, projects from the tree near its base. These trees form one of the finest groves in the world, and numerous visitors annually flock to this beautiful forest of giants."

* Always be skeptical of reported tree measurements - they don't always add up. 

** The opening and the hollow base of the Fremont Tree was caused by likely several natural fires. The windows cut through the base were fashioned by the hand of man. Over the past 150 years these windows have sealed up due to new bark growth.

Source: “Felton – A Village in the Mountains of Santa Cruz County,” Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 31, 1887.