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| Author's Personal Collection |
On March 11, 1910 Andrew Carnegie paid a visit to Big Trees Grove. The steel magnate came to Santa Cruz to see the new library on Church Street which his philanthropy helped fund. While strolling the grove "[t]he honored Scot was then shown a great monarch of the forest which had fallen to the ground last October, and he was shown what a very small amount of the hollowed out trunk had actually possessed life to sustain that great tree. Mr. Carnegie remarked, 'What surplus strength. What reserve power. That tree has perhaps lived on for a hundred years half dead."'
The Fallen Monarch of the Forest, also known simply as
the Fallen Monarch, that Carnegie was shown may be the same one which is still seen along the first half of the Redwood
Loop Trail today.
Once a redwood falls, thanks to the tannic acid within it, the heart wood can remain intact on the ground for over 150 years.
Another fallen redwood which can still be seen laying prostrate in the grove is the trunk of the Fallen Sister, located within the Fremont Group at the midway point of the Redwood Loop Trail. The Fallen Sister was part of the Three Sisters and reportedly fell during a storm in 1915.
Most fallen trunks seen in the grove are the shallow-rooted Douglas fir. Though the redwoods also have a somewhat shallow root system, those roots also extend outward a couple of hundred feet and intertwine with the roots of neighboring redwoods, thereby making them more resistant to toppling from strong winds.
Though rare, occasionally a redwood will topple. The most recent big tree to fall in the grove took place during a storm on January 19, 2017 just beyond the midpoint of the Redwood Loop Trail between trail guide posts #8 and #9.
The future for these fallen trunks was described by a visitor back in 1883.
Once a redwood falls, thanks to the tannic acid within it, the heart wood can remain intact on the ground for over 150 years.
Another fallen redwood which can still be seen laying prostrate in the grove is the trunk of the Fallen Sister, located within the Fremont Group at the midway point of the Redwood Loop Trail. The Fallen Sister was part of the Three Sisters and reportedly fell during a storm in 1915.
Most fallen trunks seen in the grove are the shallow-rooted Douglas fir. Though the redwoods also have a somewhat shallow root system, those roots also extend outward a couple of hundred feet and intertwine with the roots of neighboring redwoods, thereby making them more resistant to toppling from strong winds.
Though rare, occasionally a redwood will topple. The most recent big tree to fall in the grove took place during a storm on January 19, 2017 just beyond the midpoint of the Redwood Loop Trail between trail guide posts #8 and #9.
The future for these fallen trunks was described by a visitor back in 1883.
"One dethroned monarch has lain prostrate so long that several of his subjects have fallen across his prostrate form. Your correspondent stepped a hundred paces along his knotty and decaying body, and still his head, that ‘uneasy wore a crown,’ was not reached. It has long since moldered away and become part and parcel of the mother earth."
Sources: “The Santa
Cruz Big Trees,” Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel, October 27, 1883; Santa
Cruz Sentinel, March 12, 1910.
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