INDEPENDENCE DAY OUTING

Author's Personal Collection

On July 4^th we visited the ‘Big Tree Grove,’ which is situated in the mountains in Santa Cruz county, eight miles from Santa Cruz. We boarded the train at 7:30, and after a few minutes delightful ride we stopped at a little village called Felton, and from there we walked to the ‘big trees,’ a distance of about one mile. We had a pleasant walk and soon reached the grove, and when we walked in under the ‘giant Redwoods’ a feeling of awe came over us and we felt very insignificant indeed. The sun never shines in this grove except here and there a small spot. The largest of the trees is the ‘Giant,’ which is so large that thirteen persons may encircle it by standing at [arm’s] length, and it is said to be four hundred feet high.* Another is ‘Gen. Fremont’s,’ a hollow tree, the inside of which is like a house, and twenty-five persons may stand inside very comfortably. The wall inside is almost covered with the cards of people from all over the world. One of the most interesting things, (and especially on the Fourth of July) is an ice cream stand between the ‘Three Sisters,’ and another is a cook-stove in a hollow tree … This grove is owned by a lady who lives in San Francisco [Anna Welch], and it is a popular picnic ground. Sometimes as many as two thousand people come there in one day on an excursion from San Francisco. I was told that the grove was visited by over thirty thousand people last year.” 

* Consensus on the height of the Giant in the late 19th century was 306 feet. It was supposedly even taller before but part of its top was blown off in a storm.

Source: “The Giant Redwoods,” by Electa M. Iliff, Medicine Lodge Cresset, [Medicine Lodge, Kansas], August 14, 1891.