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| "Tall Timber," Recreation, June 6, 1915 |
When automobiles became the preferred mode of transportation to Big Trees Grove resort in the early 20th century, visitors often commented upon the exciting but harrowing experience of traveling through San Lorenzo Canyon between Santa Cruz and Felton.
"The following morning, Wednesday, found us soon after breakfast taking an automobile ride along Cliff Drive, being several miles along the shores of the ocean, and thence to the Big Trees park six miles distant, where are located so many of the trees noted for their height and circumference. The route to the park is along a road that required the talent of a superior engineer to pilot the car up and down the steep hills and around the short turns along the [San Lorenzo] river, its bed in many places hundreds of feet almost directly below, and above us the rocks and trees for more hundreds of feet. It was an experience never to be forgotten -- and which will always be remembered for its many hair raising accompaniments and for the numerous situations which superinduced heart disease in its acute stages. But after going through so many novel experiences and seeing so many things to us out of the ordinary, we were prepared for anything, for wonders came so fast upon each other ... that we ceased to marvel."
Once at the grove, visitors were again astounded with their first glimpse of the Big Trees.
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| Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, April 1893 |
"Not until we walked into the hollow of one of the largest trees, General Fremont, did we realize its great girth, and were then told that more than one hundred people had at one time been within the tree’s trunk. General Fremont is 18 feet in diameter and 280 feet in height, although the tree had lost 85 feet of its top by a storm some years previous.* The highest tree here is the Giant, 305 feet, being 63 feet in circumference … the one named Bob Ingersoll, and sometimes called the cathedral. It contains nine large and nine small trees, the parent root being 110 feet in circumference. In this comparatively small area there are many trees of great height and circumference, among the most notable being General Grant, 300 feet high and 55 feet in circumference; the McKinley, 269 feet high and 40 feet around; the Roosevelt, 275 feet high and 46 feet in circumference; the General Sherman, 53 feet in circumference, 285 feet high; the Jumbo, 290 feet high and 52 feet around. The tree dedicated by the Y.M.C.A. … is 56 feet in circumference … The most perfect tree is the McKinley, its great trunk in its symmetrical contour being almost flawless for more than two hundred feet from the ground."**
"The ride back to Santa Cruz had its thrills and nerve-racking moments, and we confess, without any reservation as to the quality of our bravery, that the level road was welcomed with a feeling of complete satisfaction."
My book details the history of Big Trees Grove resort from its purchase and initial preservation by Joseph Warren Welch in 1867, through its fame as one of California's most popular tourist destinations in the late 19th century, until its establishment as the California state park now known as Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.
* The story of dozens of
feet of a tree top being blown off is usually associated with the Giant [the grove's largest tree], rather
than the current Fremont Tree. The confusion may lie in the fact that the Giant was originally named Fremont's Tree in 1846 for the famed explorer's visit to the grove when he measured the forest giant.
** A list of 100 tree names is included in Historic Tales of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park - Big Trees Grove. To date, there are 115 tree names associated with the site of the historic Big Trees Grove resort located along the park's Redwood Loop Trail.
Source: “Notes by the Way of a Trip to Pacific Coast and Return,” Tulsa Daily World, February 6, 1916.
