SOUNDS OF THE GROVE

The Chautauquan - April 25, 1914

"All through the grove there reigns a stillness, broken now and then by the far-echoing whistle of an approaching train, or the more frequent sound of the wood-chopper’s ax. There is the never-ceasing sighing of the passing breezes through the tapering tree tops, and an undertone of rushing water in the stream near at hand."

                                                        San Francisco Chronicle, June 9, 1889

One of my favorite aspects of walking along the beautiful Redwood Loop Trail, site of the original Big Trees Grove resort, is hearing the "far-echoing whistle of an approaching train." Today the train whistle comes from neighboring amusement site, Roaring Camp, where visitors can ride vintage steam and diesel trains. Visitors who choose to take the train ride to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk travel the original route which brought thousands of the first rail tourists to the grove via the Santa Cruz & Felton Railroad starting in 1875.

View of Big Tree Station from a pre-1940 Southern Pacific Railroad Time Schedule - Author's Personal Collection

The wood-chopper’s ax is no longer heard. But if you were a visitor to Big Trees Grove resort around 1900, you would have not only heard loggers busily at work, but you would also have felt the earth shake when giant redwoods fell. The logging was not taking place on the Welch family's property, but upon the land of their neighbor ... "[f]or some time Henry Cowell, whose ranch line is within two hundred feet of the Big Trees has been working his timber up into kiln wood."

Cowell's logging set up a stark contrast to the preservation of the Big Trees on the adjacent Welch family property. A visitor in 1903 told how

"... before reaching our destination we were to be tortured by the sight of thousands of acres from which every redwood of salable size had been cut, split and perverted into cash to add yet another million to the pockets of an already multi-millionaire. 'Breathes there a man with soul so dead?' [W]e wondered at the sight of the charred stumps of fallen giants that were great trees when Rome was mistress of the world. But righteous anger against the rich old sinner who had devastated this region melted after we crossed the line of his vast possessions and entered his neighbor's territory, where redwoods in all their primeval grandeur still stood."

Thankfully, the descendants of Joseph Warren Welch continued his preservation legacy by selling the grove to Santa Cruz County for the establishment of a park in 1930. The Cowell family enters the preservation story later though not through Henry, but rather through his son, Samuel. It was Samuel Cowell who donated 1,623 of those already logged acres of adjacent land to the State of California. In 1954 Samuel insisted that his donated land be combined with the county park, site of the former Big Trees Grove resort for the establishment of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. 

Sources: “Santa Cruz Big Trees – Peculiarities of Their Growth,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 9, 1889; "Santa Cruz Big Trees Said to Be in Danger," Santa Cruz Evening Sentinel, March 13, 1900; Six and a Half Tenderfeet: Toward the Sunrise on “The Sunset” - The Record of a Journey in the Land of Sunshine, World’s Work Press: New York, 1903.

 

SHORE LEAVE

Unidentified group of sailors at Big Trees Grove, circa 1912

In 1912 an article in Our Navy – The Standard Magazine of the U.S. Navy, reflected upon one of the twenty ports of call of the famed Great White Fleet.

 

On May 3, 1908 "… the Atlantic Squadron visited the harbor of Santa Cruz, and Santa Cruzans have not forgotten the pleasure afforded them in entertaining the officers and men of the squadron. One of the notable features of the entertainment was a barbecue in the Santa Cruz Big Tree Grove, at which eleven hundred officers and citizens partook of barbecued meats and other food prepared and served under the big trees, and the day following the men of the squadron were similarly entertained in the same place."

 

Santa Cruz was one of the last ports of call for the fourteen-month circumnavigation of the Great White Fleet. Many sources of the day claimed the Fleet event at Big Trees Grove drew over 1,500 participants. A detailed description of that Naval visit may be found in my book, Historic Tales of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park – Big Trees Grove. Though the visit of Great White Fleet sailors was the largest Naval contingent to visit the grove, it was by no means the only one.

 

The 1912 Our Navy article went onto to describe the many amenities for shore leave at the resort town but saved the highest praise for a trip to the redwoods.

 

"The five-mile drive or railway trip from Santa Cruz to the big trees is via the picturesque San Lorenzo Canyon, a surpassingly beautiful scenic route. Of all the coast towns none are so easy of access, so close to the anchorage for the ships, or more hospitable to the sailormen than Santa Cruz … The amusement features are many and varied, chief among them being a picnic among the giant redwoods in the Santa Cruz Big Tree Grove, a Mecca for sightseers from all over the world … Sailormen concerned will be glad to have their ships ordered to Santa Cruz more frequently."

 

Source: “Santa Cruz, California, Popular Port of Call,” Our Navy, February 1912.