PUBLIC RIGHTS - PRIVATE RIGHTS

 

View of the fence built between Big Trees Grove and Cowell's Big Trees - Author's Personal Collection

"A great roar went up when a rough board fence* as high as a house was erected around the Big Tree grove. All at once it dashed in the face of the people, the distinction between private rights and public rights."

"The pioneers had found all things in common in California – the seashore, the pasture lands and the forests were open to their use and occupancy. A generation of native sons was well on to manhood before enclosures became common, and to this day it is very difficult for a Californian to accept the fact that he cannot travel where he will, and run a road in any direction that suits his convenience. So it seemed to him that an outrage had been committed when the Big Tree grove passed from public occupancy to private possession. Yet time has established the fact that the owners of the property were well within their rights, however great the inconvenience and the loss to the general public. So far as the Big Trees are concerned, as a rest and recreation place for Santa Cruzans, they might as well be in Tulare."

"How great a hindrance and impediment to tourist travel that fence has been, no man can tell. Ask any person connected with the passenger department of the Southern Pacific railroad, and you will be amazed at the estimate of loss of business he will give you. Yet that fence affords the owners of the grove a snug income of several hundred dollars a month, and it will remain until by purchase or condemnation private rights are eliminated from the grove."

* In the spring of 1891, Big Trees Grove manager, Joseph Ball, built a fourteen-foot high fence at the grove's entrance.

Source: “Public Rights – Private Rights,” Santa Cruz Surf, May 28,1907.