The Discovery Tree, also known as The Mammoth Tree was a Sequoiadendron giganteum tree located in Calaveras Grove, California. In 1852, A.T. Dowd found a grove in the Sierra Nevada; the trees in the grove were believed to be the first giant sequoia trees to be discovered, though some earlier reports of giant sequoias were reported. [1] The trees he discovered included the Discovery Tree, with a height of 300 feet (91 m) high and a base measuring over 24 feet (7.3 m) in diameter. [2] The Discovery Tree was cut down and shipped to San Francisco and New York City for exhibition. The tree played a large role in the introduction of the Yosemite Grant to Congress, an act that helped preserve the giant sequoias. The stump of the Discovery Tree is a popular attraction in Calaveras Grove, which has about 200,000 visitors each year. [3]
In the 1850s, during the California gold rush, stories were told of a grove of trees in the Sierra Nevada that were larger than the tallest buildings on earth. This attracted Augustus T. Dowd who in 1852, while working as a hunter for a construction crew building canals to transport water to a mining camp, shot a California grizzly bear and followed it into a forest where he discovered the giant sequoias in the Sierra Nevada. Though Dowd's discovery was initially believed as the first discovery of the big trees, historical evidence refutes his claim. [1]
In the 1850s, when travel to California's big trees was difficult and only possible by horse-and-wagon on primitive mountain trails, the idea of exploiting them for profit began to gain traction. One man, Mr. Lewis, a member of the discovery party that found the big trees, had the idea of removing the bark from one of the trees and transporting it to the East Coast for exhibition. [4] In 1853, an article in the Daily Alta California noted that a section of bark had been taken off and packed for display at the Crystal Palace in New York. [5] : 18 However, Captain Hanford, a local resident, had his own scheme to fell the "Discovery Tree" for public exhibition. He bought the tree from his friend Lapham and proceeded to cut it down by drilling away at the trunk with two-inch pump augers and sawing at the spaces between the boreholes which took five men 22 days. The tree was over 25 feet (7.6 m) in diameter, 280 feet (85 m) tall, and 1,244 years old when felled. [6]
The tree was eventually felled, and the bark was crated up and taken to San Francisco where it was put on display on Bush Street, adjacent to a local fair. [7] The bark was reassembled in its natural state, forming a spacious room, with a carpet, piano forte, and seats for forty persons. This attracted many visitors and was widely publicized in the San Francisco newspapers of the day. [8]
In 1854, Hanford, with financial support from miners Kimball and Cutting, set out to bring the giant sequoia tree from California to the eastern United States. He arrived in New York City amid controversy surrounding the Crystal Palace, a popular exhibition space that had recently closed following the World's Fair. Hanford intended to showcase the tree at the Palace, but when he and the Palace's new president, P. T. Barnum, could not agree on terms, Hanford instead rented a space at 596 Broadway. [9] However, just days before Hanford's exhibit was set to open, Barnum announced that he too would be displaying a giant California sequoia tree at the Crystal Palace. Hanford's exhibit opened one week later and was ultimately not as successful as Barnum's, due in part to the confusion caused by the competing exhibits. [5] : 20–25
The felling of the tree was met with criticism. [10] Naturalist John Muir exclaimed, "Then the vandals danced upon the stump!" [11] In 1864, the Discovery Tree was used as a symbol of the need for preservation and played a key role in the introduction of the Yosemite Grant to Congress. The Calaveras land was owned by logging interests, with public protests stopping the cutting of the trees.
In 1931, the land was purchased by the State of California. The stump and remaining log of the Discovery Tree became a popular tourist attraction. Since its discovery in 1852, Calaveras Big Trees has remained one of the state's longest-running tourist destinations. The stump was used as a dance floor, a bar, and a two-lane bowling alley. Visitors view the size of the tree and the other towering sequoias that make up the Calaveras Big Trees. [3]
Height above base [12] | 287 ft | 87.5 m |
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Circumference at ground [12] | 96 ft | 29.3 m |
Sequoiadendron giganteum, also known as the giant sequoia, giant redwood or Sierra redwood is a coniferous tree, classified in the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae. Giant sequoia specimens are the most massive trees on Earth. They are native to the groves on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California but are grown around the world.
General Sherman is a giant sequoia tree located at an elevation of 2,109 m (6,919 ft) above sea level in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, in the U.S. state of California. By volume, it is the largest known living single-stem tree on Earth.
Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890, and today protects 404,064 acres of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing a vertical relief of nearly 13,000 feet (4,000 m), the park contains the highest point in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet (4,421 m) above sea level. The park is south of, and contiguous with, Kings Canyon National Park; both parks are administered by the National Park Service together as Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. UNESCO designated the areas as Sequoia-Kings Canyon Biosphere Reserve in 1976.
Calaveras Big Trees State Park is a state park of California, United States, preserving two groves of giant sequoia trees. It is located 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Arnold, California in the middle elevations of the Sierra Nevada. It has been a major tourist attraction since 1852, when the existence of the trees was first widely reported, and is considered the longest continuously operated tourist facility in California.
The Giant Sequoia National Monument is a 328,000-acre (512 sq mi) U.S. National Monument located in the southern Sierra Nevada in eastern central California. It is administered by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the Sequoia National Forest and includes 38 of the 39 Giant Sequoia groves that are located in the Sequoia National Forest, about half of the sequoia groves currently in existence, including one of the ten largest Giant Sequoias, the Boole Tree, which is 269 feet (82 m) high with a base circumference of 112 feet (34 m). The forest covers 824 square miles (2,130 km2).
Nelder Grove, located in the western Sierra Nevada within the Sierra National Forest in Madera County, California, is a Giant sequoia grove that was formerly known as Fresno Grove. The grove is a 1,540-acre (6.2 km2) tract containing 54 mature Giant Sequoia trees, the largest concentration of giant sequoias in the Sierra National Forest. The grove also contains several historical points of interest, including pioneer cabins and giant sequoia stumps left by 19th century loggers.
Sequoia National Forest is located in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains of California. The U.S. National Forest is named for the majestic Giant Sequoia trees which populate 38 distinct groves within the boundaries of the forest.
The Wawona Tree, also known as the Wawona Tunnel Tree, was a famous giant sequoia that stood in Mariposa Grove, Yosemite National Park, California, United States, until February 1969. It had a height of 227 feet (69 m) and was 26 feet (7.9 m) in diameter at the base.
Mother of the Forest was a giant sequoia in the Sierra Nevada that was stripped of its bark and used as an exhibition tree. Discovered in 1852 by Augustus T. Dowd, it was the second largest tree in Calaveras Grove, standing at 328 feet tall with a circumference of 93 feet. During the California Gold Rush, its bark was harvested and exhibited in New York and London. However, the remaining tree was eventually destroyed by fire in 1908, leaving only a fire-blackened snag.
Converse Basin Grove is a grove of giant sequoia trees in the Giant Sequoia National Monument in the Sierra Nevada, in Fresno County, California, 5 miles (8 km) north of General Grant Grove, just outside Kings Canyon National Park. Once home to the second-largest population of giant sequoias in the world, covering 4,600 acres (19 km2) acres, the grove was extensively logged by the Sanger Lumber Company at the turn of the 20th century. The clearcutting of 8,000 giant sequoias, many of which were over 2,000 years old, resulted in the destruction of the old-growth forest ecosystem.
Mountain Home Grove is a grove of giant sequoia trees located in the southern part of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, and includes some of the largest trees in the world.
Calaveras Big Tree National Forest, in the Sierra Nevada, was established in California on May 11, 1954 with 390 acres (1.6 km2) to protect a grove of Giant Sequoias, although it had been authorized since February 18, 1909.
The General Noble Tree was a monumental giant sequoia situated in the Converse Basin Grove, within the boundaries of the Giant Sequoia National Monument, in Fresno County, California. It was believed to be the biggest tree in the world before its felling in 1892 for an exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It was the largest tree ever felled.
The Hume-Bennett Lumber Company was a logging operation in the Sequoia National Forest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The company and its predecessors were known for building the world's longest log flume and the first multiple-arch hydroelectric dam. However, the company also engaged in destructive clearcutting logging practices, cutting down 8,000 giant sequoias in Converse Basin in a decade-long event that has been described as "the greatest orgy of destructive lumbering in the history of the world."
The Pioneer Cabin Tree, also known as The Tunnel Tree, was a giant sequoia in Calaveras Big Trees State Park, California. It was considered one of the U.S.'s most famous trees, and drew thousands of visitors annually. It was estimated to have been more than 1,000 years old, and measured 33 feet (10 m) in diameter; its exact age and height were not known. The tree was topped before 1859. It fell and shattered during a storm on January 8, 2017.
Big Stump Grove is a giant sequoia grove located at the southwest entrance of Kings Canyon National Park in the Sierra Nevada of California. It is one of a group of eight close but narrowly separated Giant Sequoia groves situated in Giant Sequoia National Monument and Kings Canyon National Park.
Charles Clifford Curtis (1862–1956) was a pioneering American photographer who is best remembered for his documentary photography of the logging industry in the Sierra Nevada mountains in the late 19th century. His photographs, which captured the felling of the famous Mark Twain Tree and the General Noble tree, helped to convince the public that these giant sequoias were not a hoax. Curtis was well known for his use of large plate photography, which allowed him to capture portraits of people and gatherings that were dwarfed by the scale of the giant trees. His images of logging crews working in the rugged terrain of Converse Basin are considered some of the most iconic and enduring images of the era.
The Forest King was a giant sequoia tree located in Nelder Grove, California that was cut down in 1870 and taken on a touring exhibit in the United States. This tree was the first of its kind to be felled for exhibition, unlike earlier trees such as the Mother of the Forest from Calaveras Grove where only bark was removed. This act sparked public outcry and would lead to the founding of national parks and the protection of giant sequoias through the nascent conservation movement.
Mr. Lewis, one of the party above alluded to, after seehing these gigantic forest patriarchs, conceived the idea of removing the bark from one of the trees and taking it to the Atlantic cities for exhibiiton, and invited Dowd to join him in the enterprise.
The bark, although slightly warped by heat and other causes, still preserves much of its natural form, and is put together with great skill and care, as to give a perfect idea of the appearance of the tree, as it once stood, towering above its huge companions of the grove upon the mountain side in Calaveras.
We went yesterday afternoon to see a section of the bark, 20 feet in height, of the Mammoth Redwood Tree, erected in its original position. This section was taken off eight feet above the ground, and is 80 feet in circumference [...] It is on exhibition on Bush, near Montgomery.
The Big Tree from California -- ready for exhibition on the 8th of May. This immense tree recently felled upon the Sierra Nevada, California, has at length arrived in the city of New York, where it is placed for public exhibition in the spacious Racket Court, adjoining the Metropolitan Hotel, Broadway.