A NOBLE TREE

The Two Oldest Trees - One Dead One Living by Rufus Janiver Briscoe, 1914.

The General Sherman, a "...noble tree in its rugged majesty is well named ... About it stands a number of fine trees named 'Sheridan', 'Logan,' &c., the whole forming the group known as 'Sherman and his Lieutenants'". It is not surprising that some of the first names given to the redwoods were inspired by Civil War heroes, particularly Union Generals. Afterall, the first Big Trees Grove manager, John Hooper, hailed from Massachusetts. 

 

The General Sherman bears the scars of past intense fires. And it is likely these fire scars led the monarch to be named in honor of the Civil War general best known for leading Union forces in their infamous "March to the Sea" which included the burning of Atlanta.

 

One commentator in 1912 had a fanciful description for the General Sherman, claiming it looked like he had a bear in his arms "high in air, captured ages ago." I like the way that Miss Jessie Bunn described the General Sherman and his fellow giants in 1888:

 

Gen. Sherman completes the group of the largest trees in this forest. It seemed to me, in looking at them, that they seem to understand that they bore the names of the best men, and the grandest hereos America has ever produced, and had made themselves worthy to bear their names by towering far above the common forest trees.

 

A single known newspaper article in 1905 claimed that Sherman visited the grove while he was a young lieutenant. Though no proof exists, it is plausible that Sherman came to the Big Trees since he was in California from 1847 to 1858. He was initially stationed at Monterey, and then later in San Francisco. In the 1850s the grove was already a noted tourist attraction, particularly for picnic parties. It appears that Sherman’s time in California remained special to him, even telling a friend that "[i]f I had no family I would stay in California all my life …" The General Sherman Tree was officially dedicated in 1881. 

 

The 1930s Souvenir Guide for when the grove was known as Santa Cruz County Big Trees Park, described the General Sherman as the oldest single tree in the grove with an estimated age of 5,000 years. Though they reach far into the sky, today we know that redwoods do not reach such a great age. The oldest redwoods can reach just over 2,000 years. The General Sherman was listed as 285 feet high, with a circumference of sixty-two feet. The guide further stated that "[t]his tree has had three feet of its base burned away, has reburled parts of its base and is still a growing tree."

 

In 1914 Rufus Janvier Briscoe was on an expedition to study the petrified forest of Arizona. As part of his research, he journeyed to Big Trees Grove to examine the grove's two largest and assumed, oldest redwoods: the Giant and the General Sherman. Briscoe described the General Sherman Tree as 

 

... badly scarred by fire. Inquiry was made as to the time the fire probably occurred. The answer was that Indians had probably set the woods on fire or that it had occurred from other causes, such as lightning or friction, but no definite answer was given.

 

My experience as a lumberman furnished me with a methods of determining this important fact which I will explain. I ascertained the diameter of the suckers or young trees that were growing within this fire zone, and by determining accurately the annual growth of some of the same diameters which I found in a pile of wood not far away, I could say with conviction that the fire which all but killed the Sherman tree occurred about ninety years ago. I speak of this to show how much can be learned by experienced observation and proper application of this to the subject in hand. 

 

The last known fire which swept the grove was reportedly in 1867. Mr. Briscoe's estimate (approximately 1825) for a fire which burned the General Sherman may be partially correct. It likely took several fires to transform the General Sherman into the knarled monarch it is today. 

 

It must be remembered that the naming of individual redwoods arose with the arrival of Americans in California. The Spanish, who preceded them, referred to them as "palo colorado". The Sayant people, who have lived among the redwoods for nearly 15,000 years, call the giant monarchs ho-o-pe, meaning "red pine tree" in the Awaswas dialect. In any language, the towering redwoods are one of nature's most magnificent creations.

 

For centuries Native people managed the landscape of California for their benefit. They used fire to expand grasslands to promote the growth of edible plants and increase forage to attract more game. The Sayant management of the resources of the San Lorenzo Valley was interrupted in 1791 with the establishment of Mission Santa Cruz. The dawning of the mission era marked the removal of the first stewards from their ancestral homeland ensuring that the lives of the Sayant people would forever change. 

 

Thankfully in recent years, the state and a handful of preservation groups have joined with the descendants of California's Native people to begin to restore some Native resource management practices and the re-establishment of some Native plant species.

Sources: “9 Things You May Not Know About William Tecumseh Sherman,” by Evan Andrews, revised November 14, 2019 on the History Channel, History Stories https://www.history.com/news/9-things-you-may-not-know-about-william-tecumseh-sherman; “General Sherman Played Role in California Statehood,” by Joe Mathews, San Diego Union-Tribune, September 8, 2016. “The Big Trees,” Santa Cruz Daily Surf, June 3, 1889; “Seeing America,” – Eighteenth of a Series of Interesting Articles by Prof. J. Kimber Grimm – Continues Journey Through California – Santa Cruz, Pacific Grove, Del Monte and Santa Barbara, Bedford Gazette, [Bedford, Pennsylvania], November 28, 1912; “From the Pacific – Letter from Miss Jessie Bunn,” The Jackson Standard [Ohio], March 22, 1888; Souvenir Guide – Santa Cruz County Big Trees Park – Santa Cruz, California, circa 1930s; The Two Oldest Trees – One Dead One Living, by Rufus Janvier Briscoe, 1914.