FROM CALIFORNIA

To the Editors of the Tioga Eagle: 

GENTLEMEN:

----- "Enclosed I hand you a copy of a letter from L. Stowell, now one of the Representatives in the Legislature of California, and if you deem it of sufficient interest to publish, you have the privilege to do so.  T.P. Stowell. – Pueblo de San Jose, California, February 3d, 1850."

"When I left the mines, I bought myself a fine horse, that I might take a tour through the country, chiefly to see the timber, if any, &c. I left the Stanislaus river and proceeded south up the San Joaquin valley, and into the valley of San Jose, and from here across the mountains to Santa Cruz, which is the great lumber country here; the timber extending from 70 to 80 miles on the coast and of the best kind:  Redwood, (which takes the place of white pine,) and fir, (which is much like our Norway,) with some scattering oak."

"I thought Pennsylvania and New York grew some good sized trees, but the largest are saplings to some of the Red Wood of California, which you must acknowledge when I tell you we have them here twenty feet in diameter, and 275 feet high! – and from six to twelve feet diameter is a common size. This may look like a good sized story too, but I assure you it is nevertheless true, though I always doubted it till I saw it – Mr. Fremont to the contrary, notwithstanding. I saw the large tree that Fremont speaks of his having measured, in his travels through that part of the country."

John Charles Frémont, 1861 - Library of Congress image

For a couple of weeks in the Spring of 1846 John Charles Frémont, 2^nd Lieutenant of the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, camped among the big trees of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Frémont was on a scientific expedition and his temporary camping place in the San Lorenzo Valley was in what is now known as Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. Back in 1846 these redwoods were part of Rancho Zayante and Rancho Rincon, portions of which were owned by mountain man Isaac Graham.

Frémont was fascinated with the magnificent redwoods. At Graham’s prompting, Frémont began measuring some of the big trees, including the one Graham considered his tallest. Today this towering redwood is known simply as the Giant.

The explorer’s expedition journal entries about the redwoods captured the imagination of the American people and in the years to follow, inspired thousands of them to visit the big trees for themselves.  

In my book, Historic Tales of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park – Big Trees Grove, read how these immense coast redwoods described by Frémont became the resort Big Trees Grove, the first grove of coast redwoods preserved for public recreation.

Source: Tioga Eagle [Willsborough, Pennsylvania], May 1, 1850.

CONTEMPLATION

Santa Cruz County: Resources, Advantages, Objects of Interest by Isabel Hammel Raymond, 1887

"Many thoughts will occupy the mind as we stand at their feet, looking upward, their tops seeming to pierce the sky. One feels like a pigmy or dwarf beside them. My mind was caused to wander back to remote ages of the past, and wonder how many winter winds had whistled through their branches, and the thunder bolts that they had warded off. These monarchs of the forest may have occupied the spot where they now stand ages before a human foot trod the soil, or a human voice disturbed their silence, and before the Christian religion was promulgated." 

Source: The Autobiography of James Crooks, A.M., M.D., [Terre Haute, Indiana], 1900.

A PLEASURE RESORT

Author's Personal Collection

"Of the tract a few acres are open to all comers without charge, but the major part, and much the better part, is enclosed by a fence, high and tight, and a small fee is charged for seeing them. The owner refuses to allow a twig to be touched, and visitors are permitted to gather no souvenirs, except at the counter of the curio dealer, and is deaf to all overtures to sell, at any figure. It is said to have been bought 40 years ago for $8000,* and it is reported that $150,000 has been refused by the heirs of the purchaser. They make almost no effort to advertise it, and quite as little to provide accommodations for the sojourner, and are seemingly content with a fraction of the revenue the grove might be made to yield, but those who know about the place find good entertainment there; rather of the frontier order than of the character the California traveler is prone to expect at a pleasure resort, yet all the better for that, and surprisingly cheap. If ever these big trees pass into the hands of owners who have progressive ideas regarding these matters they will prove the biggest bonanza of all the resorts of the Golden State."

* According to the January 4, 1868 Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel, in December 1867 Edward Stanley sold 350 acres of land on the "Seyante and Rincon Ranchos" to Joseph Warren Welch for $8,750.

Source: “Southwestern Saunterings – The Big Redwoods of Santa Cruz, and Their Country,” Quad-City Times, [Davenport, Iowa], June 1, 1904.

 

THE BIG TREES BY RAIL

Ellsworth Messenger [Ellsworth, Kansas], March 10, 1904

THE RED WOOD FOREST

Author's Personal Collection

"Have you seen the big trees? asks one and another. Oh, yes, I have driven through the Red Wood forest, and although I have not seen the Yosemite with the Calaveras and Mariposa groups of trees, yet near Santa Cruz there is a delightful picnic ground called Big Trees, where I have helped to measure trees having a circumference of seventy-five feet, and over 300 feet in height. The largest trees are named after distinguished people – among them Grant and Fremont – and are covered with cards bearing the names of thousands of visitors; while the trees themselves speak of the ages in which they have stood sentinels upon the spot. You must not fail to go there, and certainly you must visit Santa Cruz, the rose-crowned city by the sea. I have visited all the principal cities, both in northern and southern California, and think Santa Cruz carries off the palm, all things considered."

Source: “Letter from California,” St. Albans Daily Messenger, [Saint Albans, Vermont], February 26, 1887.