Big Trees Grove Timeline

Native people arrived in the Santa Cruz Mountains about 15,000 years ago.  
The Sayant people were living in the San Lorenzo Valley when the first European settlers arrived in the 1790s

Today descendants of the Sayant people are represented by the Amah Mutsun tribe, the Muwekma Ohlone tribe and the
Pájaro Valley Indian Council

1769

- Father Juan Crespi of the Portolá expedition describes the redwoods as  
palo colorado

 1791

- Mission Santa Cruz is established and the Sayant people are removed from the 
San Lorenzo Valley

1819

- Henry Cowell is born in Wrentham, Massachusetts
  
1821

- Mexico wins its independence from Spain

1826

- John Mackintire Hooper is born in Massachusetts

1833

- Kentucky frontiersman Isaac Graham arrives in California
  
1834

- Rancho Zayante is granted to Joaquin Buelna

1835

- Buelna rents a portion of Rancho Zayante to Job Dye for building a gristmill and distillery
- Buelna lets his claim to Rancho Zayante lapse
- An American logging operation is established on Rancho Zayante

1838

- Rancho Carbonera is granted to José Guillermo Bocle

1841
- Rancho Zayante is granted to Joseph Majors

1842
- Graham returns to the San Lorenzo Valley

1843
- Rancho Rincon is granted to Pierre Sainsevain who built a sawmill along the 
San Lorenzo River

1845
May
- John Charles Frémont begins his third expedition to the West
December
- Frémont arrives at Sutter's Fort in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California
- Mexico rejects President Polk's 40 million dollar offer to purchase California and 
New Mexico

1846
January
- Frémont travels to Monterey to meet with U.S. consul Thomas Larkin
February
- Frémont spends a few weeks on Isaac Graham's Rancho Zayante
- Frémont measures the grove's tallest tree - Fremont's Tree - now known as the Giant
April 5th
- Sacramento River Massacre 
May 13th
- Mexican War begins
June 10th
- Bear Flag Revolt begins 
July 1st
- Frémont names the opening of San Francisco Bay the Golden Gate

1847
- German botanist Steven Endlicher bestows the genus name Sequoia 

1848
- Mexican War ends
 January 24th
- Gold discovered by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California

1850
- California becomes a state

1852
- Joseph Warren Welch marries Anna Isabella Learned

1855
- Gold discovered in the San Lorenzo River at Gold Gulch

1856
- Frémont runs as the first Republican nominee for president

1860
- Abraham Lincoln is the first Republican elected president 
- What is believed to be the first paper mill in California is built on Rancho Carbonera
August 27th
- Earliest known account of the hollow redwood (now the Fremont Tree) at the grove

1861
- Civil War begins

1862
- Artist Edward Vischer visits the grove to sketch the Big Trees

1863
- Isaac Graham dies

1864
- U.S. grants Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Big Trees to the State of California
- California Powder Works is built on the site of the old paper mill on Rancho Carbonera

1865
- Civil War ends
- Henry Cowell comes to Santa Cruz

1867
- Joseph Warren Welch purchases 350.5 acres of coast redwoods in the San Lorenzo Valley
- A fire rages through the San Lorenzo Valley

1868
- The town of Felton is founded
- The toll road between Santa Cruz and Felton is opened
August 1st
- Earliest known account linking Frémont to the hollow redwood in the grove

1872
- Arbor Day is first celebrated
- Yellowstone National Park established as America's first national park
- Botanist Asa Gray visits the San Lorenzo Valley

1875
- Completion of the Santa Cruz & Felton Railroad
November - Joseph Warren Welch dies

1876
May 12th
- John Hooper leases Big Trees Grove

1877
- Naturalist John Muir traverses the Santa Cruz Mountains to study the coast redwood
 May 24th
- John Hooper hosts the first Moonlight Ball at Big Trees Grove

1879
- Anna Welch files suit for damages against the South Pacific Coast Railroad
- I. Douglas Welch dies
November 17th
- An explosion at railroad Tunnel No. 3 at Wrights kills 32 Chinese laborers

1880
May
- Opening of the South Pacific Coast Railroad between Oakland and Santa Cruz

1881
- John Hooper goes bankrupt and leaves Big Trees Grove

1884
October 4th
- American orator Robert Ingersoll visits Big Trees Grove

1885
- Joseph Ball leases Big Trees Grove
- The San Lorenzo Flume ceases operation

1886
- Adolphus Busch, founder of Anheuser-Busch Brewing, visits Big Trees Grove
September 28th
-Frederick Law Olmstead, Sr. and Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr. visit Big Trees Grove

1887
- South Pacific Coast Railroad purchased by Southern Pacific
December 6th
- New York Giants touring baseball team visits Big Trees Grove

1888
May 4th
- John Charles Frémont and his family visit Big Trees Grove
- Caricaturist and Cartoonist Thomas Nast visits Big Trees Grove

1889
- Joseph Ball appointed agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad at Big Tree Station
- Big Tree Grove hosts the Southern Pacific Railroad Picnic
August
- Augustus Busch visits Big Trees Grove

1890
- Creation of Sequoia National Park, General Grant National Park and 
Yosemite National Park

1891
- Big Trees Grove begins charging a ten-cent admissions fee
 May 1st
- President Benjamin Harrison visits Big Trees Grove

1892
- A picket fence is constructed around the Giant to protect it from souvenir hunters

1896
- Admiral Lester Beardslee and sailors of the USS Philadelphia visit Big Trees Grove

1897
- Big Trees Grove admission fee is raised to 25-cent

1899
March
- Cornelius Vanderbilt III visits Big Trees Grove
October
- Fire rages above Los Gatos
- Josephine Clifford McCrackin's home Monte Paraiso burns down

1900
- Henry Cowell becomes sole owner of the IXL Lime Company
March 7th
- Josephine Clifford McCrackin's Santa Cruz editorial calls for preserving the redwoods
- The Sempervirens Club is founded 
August
- Wide World Magazine article - "How a Forest Fire was Extinguished with Wine" 

1901
- Joseph Ball leaves Big Trees Grove
 May 13th
- In place of President William McKinley, members of his cabinet visit Big Trees Grove

1902
- The Welch family incorporates the Big Trees Land and Development Company
- Big Basin Redwoods State Park opens to the public
April 18th
- Edward H. Harriman, American railroad executive, visits Big Trees Grove
May
- Henry Cowell leases land adjacent to Big Trees Grove to Milo Hopkins
- Big Tree Station is moved by Southern Pacific from Big Trees Grove to Cowell's Big Trees
- Stanley Welch deeds his interest in Big Trees Grove to his brother Herman Welch
November 21st
- Crown Prince Vajiravudh of Siam (later King Rama VI) visits Big Trees Grove

1903
March - Henry Cowell shot and wounded in Merced, California 
May 11th
- President Theodore Roosevelt visits Big Trees Grove and a tree is dedicated to him
August 4th
- Henry Cowell dies
August 11th
- John D. Rockefeller and son visit Big Trees Grove


1904
- Neptune's Castle is constructed at the Santa Cruz Beach 

1905
- Anna Welch dies

1906
April 18th
- San Francisco Earthquake and Fire

1908
May 5th
- Sailors of the Great White Fleet visit Big Trees Grove and the "Fighting Bob" Evans Tree is dedicated to him

1910
March 11th
- Steel magnate Andrew Carnegie visits Big Trees Grove
April
- Championship boxer James J. Jeffries visits Big Trees Grove and a tree is dedicated to him
August 18th - Naturalist Willis Linn Jepson visits Big Trees Grove

1911
- Construction of the Southern Pacific ticket booth at Big Tree Station
August
- Milo Hopkins knocks down the gate between Cowell's Big Trees and Big Trees Grove

1914 
- Gustav Rohrer starts bus service between the Casa del Rey Hotel and Big Trees Grove

1915
- A storm topples one of the Three Sisters thereby crushing the outdoor bar
July
- American orator and politician William Jennings Bryan visits Big Trees Grove

1916
January
- Film director Cecil B. DeMille visits Big Trees Grove and a tree is dedicated to him

1917
- Actress Mary Pickford visits Big Trees Grove and a tree is dedicated to her

1919
- IXL Lime Company ceases operation
 August 26th
- The U.S. Pacific Fleet visit Big Trees Grove and a tree is named for the fleet

1920
March
- Actor William S. Hart visits Big Trees Grove

1924
- Harry Staley becomes manager of Big Trees Grove for the Welch family
- The California Grizzly Bear is declared extinct

1926
- Herman Welch dies

1928
- Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr. and a State of California parks commission visit 
Big Trees Grove

1930
- Big Trees Grove becomes Santa Cruz County Big Trees Park

1932
- Horticulturalist Luther Burbank visits Big Trees Grove 

1940
- Southern Pacific's mountain route is closed by a landslide and abandoned

1954
- Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park is established  
  

Some references from "Celebrity Visitors at Big Trees" by Traci Bliss and Randall Brown from Redwood Logging and Conservation in the Santa Cruz Mountains