THE CLEVELAND TREE

Grover Cleveland, c. 1884 - Library of Congress image

One of Big Trees Grove’s forest monarchs was dedicated to President Grover Cleveland in 1902. Cleveland was the only U.S. president to serve two non-consecutive terms: 1885-1889 and 1893-1897. He was also the first Democratic president elected since the Civil War. Cleveland initially won with the combined support of Democrats and reform minded Republicans known as the “Mugwumps”. He advocated limited government and was successful in fighting political corruption and patronage.

In 1905 the Cleveland Tree was the object of a joke “[w]hen the guide pointed out ‘Grover Cleveland’ one of the crowd caused quite a laugh by exclaiming ‘Why that doesn’t look like a dead one.’”  Perhaps the humor was related to the fact that Cleveland declined a call from the Democratic Party to run for president again in 1904.

One description claimed that Cleveland's namesake tree was very large, reportedly standing 300 feet high and without a limb for its first 50 feet. Yet another account quipped that "Old Grover has the poorest tree, but then he never came to see and I think they put it over him a little." The President Cleveland Tree supposedly stands near the President Roosevelt Tree. Perhaps in trees, as in life, it paled in comparison.

Sources: Leek, E.B. “Our California Letter,” Sag-Harbor Express, May 15, 1902; “What an Eastern Paper Says About Santa Cruz,” by Mrs. DeEtte of Nebraska, Santa Cruz Evening Sentinel, January 9, 1907; “From California,” Santa Cruz, Calif., Miami Republican, [Paola, Kansas], March 13, 1908; Sedgwick Pantagraph [Sedgwick, Kansas], July 6, 1905; “Grover Cleveland,” History Channel, August 21, 2018, https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/grover-cleveland.