FIRE UPDATE

Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park is closed until further notice. Though it is safe from the fire, the main portion of the park is apparently being used for kitchens to feed fire fighters and for staging fire fighter vehicles.

FIRE UPDATE

 

At this time happy to announce that the majority of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park is not affected directly by the fire, though significant fire and firefighting efforts continue in the upper portions of the Fall Creek unit of the park (north of Felton proper).

Fortunately at this time the Redwood Loop Trail, location of the historic Big Trees Grove resort, remains outside the fire perimeter. Everyone please continue to send good thoughts for our irreplaceable park. 

Thank you.

WONDERFUL! WONDERFUL!

Santa Cruz County: Resources, Advantages, Objects of Interest by Isabel Hammel Raymond, 1887. Note the train on the far left side of the image.

“The famous grove of giant redwoods which stands about six miles north of the city of Santa Cruz, Cal., is among the great curiosities of the Pacific coast. Travelers from all over the United States, and, for that matter from all over the world, view these giants of the forests while they exclaim, “Wonderful! Wonderful!”

View from the turn out on Highway 9 between Santa Cruz and Felton - Author's Personal Collection

“To reach these wonders one drives through one of the most picturesque sections of California. The highway penetrates to the very heart of the mountains, clinging to the hillsides, running along the lofty banks of the lovely San Lorenzo river and delighting the eye at every turn with some exquisite bit of mountain scenery.”

Source: “Gen. John C. Fremont at Giant Redwood,” The Anaconda Standard, [Anaconda, Montana], March 15, 1903.

THE NINE MUSES

 Author's Personal Collection

The Nine Muses was a group of smaller redwoods surrounding the stump of a big tree which was used as the Big Trees Grove bandstand. In the image above, just behind the Three Sisters, you can see the staircase leading up to the bandstand. Note the Giant, with its picket fence, in the background.

The name Nine Muses was bestowed upon these trees by 1889. The nine muses of Greek mythology referenced were 

Thalia (Comedy)

Urania (Astronomy)

Melpomene (Tragedy)

Polyhymnia (Hymns)

Erato (Lyric Poetry)

Calliope (Epic Poetry)

Clio (History)

Euterpe (Flue-playing)

Terpsichore (Choral Lyric and Dancing)

Author's Personal Collection

The above image shows a similar view today looking from the Three Sisters (within the Fremont Group) toward the Nine Muses. The area is now crowded with a thick underbrush. The Sister on the right in both images is the same. It fell during a storm in 1915 and is now known as the Fallen Sister.

FOR THE PEOPLE

Author's Personal Collection

 

 

"Later it was our pleasure to visit the big trees or the redwood (Sequoia sempervirens). At the big tree near Santa Cruz in California this small grove of this majestic tree contains some of the largest of the species with the exception of a few in the Muir woods near San Francisco. A part of this grove is free to the public but a part of it is fenced off and a small admission of twenty-five cents will admit you to the grove containing the largest tree."

 

"Some of the trees are dedicated to a few notable personages like McKinley and Grant. Most of the trees have inscriptions of some fraternal order. I have no objections to the placing of such monuments in appropriate places around these trees; however, it does appear to me that a grove like this, accessible to travelers along the line of the Southern Pacific railroad, should become the property not of an individual or corporation but it should belong to the people. For this reason the state or national government should control this grove as one of the nation's play grounds. This grove would then be more adequately protected from vandalism and fires." 

Thanks to the Welch family who operated the resort for 60 years, Big Trees Grove finally came under government protection. In 1930 they sold the grove to Santa Cruz County. The grove flourished as Santa Cruz County Big Trees Park for nearly 25 years. In 1954 it became part of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.

 

Source: “The Conservation of the Wild Flowers,” by L.H. Pammel, Transactions of the Iowa State Horticultural Society, December 1915.

FASCINATING MOUNTAIN SCENERY

Big Trees Grove received attention in many newspapers and tour guides in the late 19^th century. On July 28, 1894 the grove’s attributes were described in the nation’s leading monthly magazine, Harper’s Weekly.

"Santa Cruz, one of the beautiful watering places of California, is located about ninety miles south from San Francisco, and is accessible by rail and sea. Here the famous Bay of Monterey makes a crescent, with the groves of the Hotel del Monte at one end and the city of Santa Cruz at the other; but Santa Cruz perhaps has the greater number of natural attractions."

"Leaving San Francisco by rail in the afternoon, you pass through the wonderfully productive Santa Clara Valley, where is situated the city of San Jose, embowered in its orchards of apricots, prunes, peaches, and cherries, now wealthy with the promise of a golden harvest. Then pressing southward, the road rises to a considerable altitude, and passes over the range of Santa Cruz Mountains. In the deep canons, where the train follows the shelves of the mountain-sides, you traverse some of the most fascinating mountain scenery in California. The slopes on either side are heavily timbered with redwood, and the wild streams leap out from hidden crevices." 

Gentleman standing in front of the Giant

"Within a few miles of your destination the train passes through a grove of giant trees, some of which rise three hundred feet in height and are sixty feet in circumference. In their presence the train looks like a toy, and its whistle sounds like the piping of courage making bravado. In this grove General (then Captain) Fremont in 1846 camped in a tree which had been hollowed out by fire. This tree, which is still living, now affords a spacious room, about sixteen by twenty feet, and thirty feet high."

There are several points to note about this article. The author does not mention the name most often used for the resort (Big Trees Grove) or mention its proprietors. Despite the lovely description of the journey to the big tree region, this article also perpetuated one of the grove's most often told stories about explorer John Charles Frémont (at the time actually a 2nd Lieutenant) ... that while in the grove in 1846 he slept within the fire-scarred hollow of a giant redwood. The story's origin is uncertain. Some attribute it to Frémont's wife, Jessie Benton Frémont, who assisted her husband in preparing his expedition journals for publication. To this day, the validity of this story remains in doubt.

Finally, the sketch of the Giant used in this 1894 article dates before 1892. In that year, a picket fence with barbed wire was erected around the Giant to protect it from vandalism by over enthusiastic tourists. 

Today, split-rail fences protect many of the Big Trees. The redwood’s fibrous bark can be over a foot thick and serves as the trees’ best protection from fire and insects. The soft bark can easily be damaged if climbed on; therefore, climbing on the roots or trunks of the Big Trees is strictly prohibited.  

Please be a good park steward and help us protect these irreplaceable trees. Thank you.