FOR SOME PERSPECTIVE

Josephine Clifford McCrackin looks over the remains of her fire destroyed home. Andrew P. Hill image from the British publication, World Wide Magazine, August 1900.

Here is an excerpt from my book about the 1899 fire which led to the movement to save the redwoods. This fire took place in the hills above Los Gatos. This quote is from the photographer Andrew P. Hill ...

"I could see a great blaze at the base of the trees that seemed like a furnace. Then, one after the other, they were simply enveloped from the base to tip with flame, which leaped upwards with a velocity so great that it seemed unable to stop when it reached the top of the tree. Then, with one great bound, it continued, leaving tree and earth far behind, and exploding high in mid-air, lighting up the country for miles around."

Hill was hired to take photographs for an article in the British publication, Wide World Magazine. The August 1900 article by Charles Frederick Holder was entitled, “How a Forest Fire Was Extinguished with Wine."

Hill headed to the Welch family's Big Trees Grove to take photographs for the article. What better place to take such photographs than the place where redwood tourism began, Big Trees Grove. Hill was famously and unceremoniously kicked out of the grove when he attempted to photograph the giant redwoods without paying the Welch's entrance fee.

The March 7, 1900 Santa Cruz Sentinel editorial by Josephine Clifford McCrackin (who lost her home in the fire), chastised the Welch family for kicking out Hill and advocated for the preservation of the redwoods. It was her editorial, along with the later Wide World Magazine article which accelerated calls to preserve the coast redwoods.  

Some concerned citizens wanted to acquire the Welch property for a proposed state park, but others had long been advocating for the preservation of another grove of Big Trees farther up the valley. Since the Welch family refused all overtures about their property, the focus of all preservation efforts quickly turned to the redwood forest outside Boulder Creek. Starting in May 1900, a group of women and men activists composed of academics, politicians and journalists began an extensive, statewide publicity campaign to save the redwoods. The newly formed Sempervirens Club turned its sights on acquiring the only other remaining grove of old-growth redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains. After a hard-fought two-year effort, the hopes of countless advocates were realized when the redwood park bill was signed into law in March 1901. In 1902, Big Basin opened as the state’s first park.