GENTLEMEN OF UNQUESTIONED VERACITY

The Giant, circa 1890, from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Special Collections, Santa Cruz County Historic Photograph Collection. Tourists often tacked their personal calling cards upon the forest monarch.

The following appeared in the May 2, 1867, issue of The Cultivator & Country Gentleman magazine:

“I hold in my hand a statement signed by twelve citizens of the county of Santa Cruz, [naming them] gentlemen of unquestioned veracity, an extract of which is as follows:

‘On land owned and cultivated by Mr. James Williams, an onion grew to the enormous weight of twenty-one pounds. On the same land, a turnip was grown that equalled exactly in size the top of a flour barrel. On land owned and cultivated by Thomas Fallen, a cabbage grew which measured, while growing, 13 feet six inches around its body. The various cereal grains also grew to the height of from 6 to 12 feet. One redwood tree in the valley, known as Fremont’s tree, measures over 50 feet in circumference, and is nearly 300 feet high …’”