CALIFORNIA'S REDWOOD PARK 



BY ARTHUR A. TAYLOR, SECRETARY CALIFORNIA REDWOOD PARK COMMISSION 



WHEN Uncle Sam was figuratively still sitting by 

 the stove whittling and talking about the weather, 

 unaware of, or incliflferent to, the scenic and 

 esthetic importance of his domain, the state of California 

 wakened to the hereditary value of its redwood forests 

 and bought back at a price a fragment of the inheritance 

 the Federal Government 

 had sold for a song. 



Late in the last century 

 it was perceived that the 

 redwoods were rapidly dis- 

 a|i])earing before the de- 

 mands of commerce and 

 the ravages of fire, and af- 

 ter an active agitation a 

 law was passed authorizing 

 the purchase of a tract of 

 virgin forest in the Big 

 I^)asin, Santa Cruz County, 

 to be preserved and protect- 

 ed "for the honor of the 

 state of California, and the 

 benefit of succeeding gen- 

 erations." 



The redwood tree, as is 

 generally kncnvn, lives only 

 in California and a small 

 l)art of Oregon. There are 

 two species, the Sequoia 

 Washingtoniana of the 

 Sierras, and the Sequoia 

 Sempervirens (ever-virile) 

 of the coast ranges. It is 

 the largest tree and the old- 

 est living thing on the earth. 

 Many of the redwood trees 

 of California were saplings 

 when Hiram of Tyre was 

 hewing the cedars of Leba- 

 non for Solomon's Temple, 

 and these trees are not abo- 

 rigines, but descendents of 

 a long line of ancestors. 

 contem|)()raneous with the 

 mammoth and the masto- 

 don. 



A sound redwood log 

 was found in a mine in the 

 slate of Nevada i,yoo feet 

 underneath the surface of the ground and some of the 

 predecessors of the present day trees are j)reseived in the 

 petrified forests of Arizona. A few of the juvenile red- 

 woods of our era attain a height of 350 feet, and a girth 

 of 60 feet. There are hundreds of redwoods in the 



Note 



L alifornia Redwood Park of 250 feet in height, in diame- 

 ter varying from 12 to 15 feet — and these were the trees 

 threatened by the recent terrific fires. These trees are 

 growing on the site of jjrior forests wherein the trees 

 attained dimensions double the size of those now living. 

 This fact is attested by the root rings left in crater-like 



circles to outline the trunks 

 of trees which, after an un- 

 thinkable longevity have 

 died and decayed — been ab- 

 sorbed by the soil and dis- 

 sipated by the winds. These 

 mute mementos of the 

 giants of other days are 

 quite as impressive as the 

 majesty of the living trees. 

 California selected the 

 Big Basin in Santa Cruz 

 County for its forest re- 

 serve, not only on account 

 of the size, abundance and 

 beauty of its redwood trees, 

 but for geographical and 

 topographical reasons. 



The park is easy of ac- 

 cess from Santa Cruz, San 

 Jose and Palo Alto, and 

 within a three hours' auto 

 ride from the cities about 

 the bay of San Francisco. 

 The Big Basin is an irregu- 

 lar fan-shaped area em- 

 bracing about 14,000 acres 

 surrounded by elevations of 

 an average of two thousand 

 feet above sea level. The 

 dotted peaks about the 

 margin range from 2,500 

 10 3,000 feet in height and 

 the lowest gap of entrance 

 is 1,600 feet. While these 

 figures do not indicate high 

 mountains, the altitudes are 

 imjiressive because the 

 ocean lies in view and the 

 range of vision covers fifty 

 miles or more landward, 

 over a panorama of rap- 

 turous diversity and beauty. 

 The main floor of the I'asin where the largest and 

 most interesting redwoods abound is at an elevation of 

 1,000 feet. Here are located at what is known as the 

 Governor's Camp, the office of the Warden, and the Red- 

 wood Inn, with accommodations for visitors and campers. 



GUARDING THE NEW GENERATION 



the young redwood. ofFspring of the Riant parent tree, guarded on 

 each side by sentinel trees. 



