IN MEMORIAM

 

San Francisco Chronicle, May 14, 1901

In 1901 Big Trees Grove was expecting its second presidential visit. The first president to visit the grove was Benjamin Harrison in 1891. Ten years later the grove was supposed to be visited by President William McKinley. Extravagant preparations were made for a banquet lunch at the grove that May. When Mrs. McKinley fell ill, the president decided to stay at her bedside. Though the people of Santa Cruz were disappointed, they decided to carry out the program as it had been arranged. Serving in lieu of the president were members of his cabinet led by Secretary of State John Hay.

 

"By 11 o’clock the train reached Big Tree Station. Some of the immemorial giants stood near the track, and before the party left their seats they could see the great corrugated trunks towering above them. There, for the first time, most of the Cabinet officers and their companions saw the works of nature that have done more than anything else to make the name of California famous among naturalists. Directly in front of the Secretary of State’s group stood the famous sequoia sempervirens ‘General Grant,’ as it stood when Napoleon rose and fell, and long before, when the pride of King John crumbled at Runnymede, and even perhaps in that old time when the Roman eagles flew above the world, so it stood in majestic calm, with barley a murmur audible among the branches that hung ninety feet above the heads of the throng below ..."

 

"A guide showed the Cabinet party hurriedly through the grove. On every hand evidence of untold age was seen. The charm of this was that united to the antiquity of the trees was perfect health and green old strength. Their great trunks were wrinkled as a centenarian’s brow, but their tops were flourishing with the freshness of a youth that seems immortal."

 

Though a later Santa Cruz County Big Trees Park brochure stated that the McKinley tree dedication took place during this visit of the cabinet, accounts of the day do not mention it. In fact, the only mention of a tree dedication that day was for a member of the next party to arrive, Governor Nash of Ohio. Therefore, I believe the McKinley Tree dedication did not come until later that year after the president’s assassination on September 14, 1901.

 

"The most perfect tree in the grove, tall, over 300 feet, and stately, was named after our lamented and beloved President, 'McKinley,' a striking monument to his straightforward character and lofty principles."

Author's Personal Collection

Later accounts mention a slightly smaller tree which stood close to the McKinley. One account claims it was dubbed the Mrs. McKinley Tree. But another claimed the smaller tree was "… named in honor of the then Vice-President, now our highly esteemed President, 'Roosevelt.'" Once Theodore Roosevelt became president, it only seemed fitting that he should have a proper, presidential size tree. During his May 11, 1903 visit, he too was finally given this honor with an appropriately straight, tall, monarch of the forest befitting a president.

Sources: “Our California Letter,” by E.B. Leek, Sag-Harbor Express, May 15, 1902; “Seeing America,” by Prof. J. Kimber Grimm, Bedford Gazette, [Bedford, Pennsylvania], November 28, 1912; “Santa Cruz Entertains the Cabinet Royally,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 14, 1901.