A TALE OF TWO ROUTES

In the 19^th century there were two quite different rail routes from San Francisco to Santa Cruz that were used by visitors journeying to Big Trees Grove. 

This 1883 account described the original rail route operated by Southern Pacific. 

Southern Pacific Railroad map, 1875 - Library of Congress

"… [We] took the ten o’clock train of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Upon this trip we had an experience of climate changes in short distances never equaled in our experience. At San Francisco our overcoats were comfortable, when twenty miles away unbearable … In fact one of the hottest places I ever experienced was Gilroy, where we arrived about one o’clock and found the mercury at 106 degrees. It was a hot, dusty and very disagreeable ride, and little to be seen except as leaving San Francisco the truck farms terraced up the hill sides of the valleys … We pass San Jose and dine at Gilroy. Soon after at Pajaro we leave our parlor car and take the narrow gauge branch for Santa Cruz. In the one we were roasted, and before we have traveled ten miles on the other towards the Pacific we have our overcoats on and the windows down …"

Once in Santa Cruz such tour groups continued over the narrow-gauge train up San Lorenzo Canyon to Felton. "In spite of it all it was such a beautiful ride and of such thrilling interest that no one regretted it. At last we wind down into the grove, seven miles from our starting place. We all form ideas of these things, but one must see them to appreciate their greatness, their grandeur and sublimity. We dismount and go into and around among these monarchs of the forest."*

"Allow me here to mention we made a mistake in our route. Had we taken the Southern Pacific Coast Railroad (narrow gauge) we would have avoided the dust and heat of the inland route and saved forty miles …"

South Pacific Coast Railroad map from Beauties of California, 1883

The South Pacific Coast Railroad completed a shorter route through and partially under the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1880. The trip from San Francisco to Big Trees Grove was described in the 1883 guide, Beauties of California.

"Crossing the bay of San Francisco in one of their magnificent ferry-boats to Alameda Point, where you take the cars of the South Pacific Coast Railroad; thence passing through the suburban residence town of Alameda, and on through the pleasant bay-coast towns of Newark, Centerville, Alvarado, Santa Clara to San Jose, the garden city of California, and then on through the Santa Clara Valley, -- filled for ten miles with fruit orchards, vineyards and groves of live oaks, -- you reach the picturesque mountain town of Los Gatos ... After a fine view of the valley the train immediately plunges into the wild and romantic Santa Cruz mountains, winding its way through canons and romantic gorges of wonderful beauty, through huge forests of giant trees, and along romantic mountain roads to the Big Trees, at Felton ..."

One passenger aboard this route concurred, declaring "I challenge any other route in [the] world to produce a more picturesque and grander scenery than is here found. To describe all its beauty would task the most gifted pen. To all tourists who visit this Coast, I would say that to return without making this trip is to leave the best unseen ... Make this trip I say and if you do not endorse all I have said then, Messrs. Editors, give my name and address and I will willingly refund all expenses ..."

Little wonder why the mountain route constructed by the South Pacific Coast Railroad became far more popular for tourists traveling to Big Trees Grove.

* After their unpleasant rail journey, this particular tour group chose to ride up from Santa Cruz to Big Trees Grove by horse drawn carriage.

Note:  In 1887, the South Pacific Coast Railroad route came under the control of Southern Pacific.

Sources: “From Philadelphia to San Francisco,” Sunbury Weekly News [Sunbury, Pennsylvania], November 23, 1883; “To Santa Cruz – An Enjoyable Trip over the South Pacific Coast Railroad,” Daily Alta California, June 28, 1882; Beauties of California : Including Big Trees, Yosemite Valley, Geysers, Lake Tahoe, Donner Lake, S.F. '49 & '83, etc., by N. W. Griswold, 1883.

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THE FREMONT GROUP

Map of the Fremont Group located at the midway point of the current Redwood Loop Trail. The big trees remain but the hotel structures and the Arcade (a redwood gazebo) are long gone. The star refers to one of the Three Sisters which fell during a storm in 1915. Since then it's been known as the Fallen Sister.

The Fremont Group denoted the trees adjacent to the Big Trees Grove hotel: the Fremont Tree, Jumbo and the Three Sisters. This was the original rail tourist entrance to Big Trees Grove. The Fremont Group location is now the back of the grove at the midway point of the current Redwood Loop Trail. In addition to the hotel complex, an array of picnic tables and rustic seats were once located within the Fremont Group. The most notable amenity which once welcomed tourists here was an outdoor bar erected at the base of the Three Sisters.

"The gigantic big trees are one mile from the village [Felton]. This grove has countless trees from eight to twelve feet in diameter, and many much larger ... the ‘General Fremont,’ named from the fact that a General by that name [supposedly] camped within a hollow at its base, is 275 feet in height, and measures forty-eight feet* in circumference. The base of this tree is hollow from the ground fifteen feet up, and has been worked and chiseled out into a large room,** with two windows and a door, in which, in early days, a family of four persons has kept house. Within the apartment at the present time are the cards of thousands of visitors pinned to the walls."

"The ‘Three Sisters’ stand near-by, with a height of 200 feet, and from thirty to sixty-five feet in circumference. The sisters are very grateful and sublime in appearance. ‘Jumbo’ keeps them company, and with his [monstrous] body protects the sisters from harm. He measures twenty-two feet in diameter, forty-seven feet* in circumference, and stands 270 feet. This tree derived its name from the fact that a large knot, the exact shape of an elephant’s head and trunk, projects from the tree near its base. These trees form one of the finest groves in the world, and numerous visitors annually flock to this beautiful forest of giants."

* Always be skeptical of reported tree measurements - they don't always add up. 

** The opening and the hollow base of the Fremont Tree was caused by likely several natural fires. The windows cut through the base were fashioned by the hand of man. Over the past 150 years these windows have sealed up due to new bark growth.

Source: “Felton – A Village in the Mountains of Santa Cruz County,” Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 31, 1887.

TOWERING GIANT

Author's Personal Collection

“One tree, the ‘Giant,’ whose head towers far, far toward the heavens, piercing the very clouds with its branches, with forty feet broken by the storm, and hurled to the earth, still stands in its majestic height 300 feet. The ‘Giant’ is indeed a giant and a father of the forest, measuring in circumference eighty-four feet*, the bark being two feet thick, and requiring the second look to reach the top.”

During the 19th century there were numerous estimates of the Giant's height, anywhere from 300 to 365 feet. Most accounts claimed the Giant stood at least 306 feet. At some point a portion of its top was apparently broken off in a storm. Today, this still impressive monarch of the forest measures just over 275 feet.

* This figure is rather an exaggeration.

"Felton – A Village in the Mountains of Santa Cruz County," Santa Cruz Sentinel, March 31, 1887.