A huge multi-trunk redwood became known as Ingersoll’s Cathedral after a 1884 visit to the resort by Robert Green Ingersoll, the leading American orator of the 19^th century. A humanist and critic of fundamentalist religion, Ingersoll was often referred to as the “Great Agnostic.” 

The naming of a tree after Robert Green Ingersoll was seen by some as an affront. In reaction “delegates from the (1887) San Francisco convention of the Young Men’s Christian Association (Y.M.C.A.) came down to Big Trees Grove to dedicate in honor of their organization, a similar multi-trunk redwood nearby the offending Ingersoll’s Cathedral.  

Photograph courtesy of Deborah Osterberg