MOST ENJOYABLE

The Nation’s Chief before the Forest King - President Roosevelt in Big Tree Grove, Santa Cruz, California.New York: Underwood & Underwood, 1903. 

Print - California State Library.

"The newspaper correspondents said Monday that the President’s trip to Santa Cruz and the Big Trees was the most enjoyable of any. One of the correspondents remarked: 'In places we have been in we have traveled through miles of dust and seen great crowds of people. Here we have had a variety of scenery, which is pleasing to the eye. We see more of the President here at the Big Trees than we did at any other place, because he has always been surrounded by crowds. He loves to be among the trees. That suits him. We shall never forget Santa Cruz. The success of the reception in Santa Cruz is that it is original, unlike any other we have experienced.'"

 

In April 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt embarked upon a fourteen-thousand-mile rail tour of the American West. Roosevelt traveled in style aboard his private rail car, the Elysian, complete with stateroom, dining room, kitchen and two bathrooms. 

 

The trip, later described as one of the most consequential presidential trips in American history, took Roosevelt through 25 states over a nine-week period. The president, an avid outdoorsman, enjoyed visiting iconic landscapes including Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. Though the most lauded leg of the trip was Roosevelt's meeting with naturalist John Muir in Yosemite Valley, the president was also anxious to see the California redwoods. His first opportunity to view the redwoods came with his stop at Santa Cruz. 

 

Santa Cruzans still keenly felt the disappointment of missing out on a visit from President McKinley two years before. When it was announced that President Roosevelt would make the city one of his stops, the citizens were determined to make it memorable. And apparently, they did. 

 

Read more about Roosevelt’s visit to Big Trees Grove in my book, Historic Tales of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park – Big Trees Grove.

 

Sources: “Pleased With Reception,” Santa Cruz Sentinel, May 13, 1903; “TR in California: The Whistle Stop Tour That Changed America,” by Lenora M. Henson,  TR Inaugural Site, August 8, 2016, https://www.trsite.org/blog/2016/08/08/tr-in-california-the-whistle-stop-tour-that-changed-america; Teddy Roosevelt in California: The Whistle Stop Tour that Changed America by Chris Epting, 2015.