1448 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Hereabouts is a grove of stupendous redwoods, vener- 

 able for their age, world wonders for their size, stagger- 

 ing to the imagination in their lumber content, beautiful 

 as statues in their symmetry — many of them — others, 

 grotesque of form, rugged of exterior, living witnesses of 

 their conflict with the centuries, through fire and tempest. 



"And the great trees watch and wonder much. Surely 

 a new race is coming on down there ; men who measure 

 their girth in love, not in greed, taking the place of 

 creatures they used to dread more than rot and disease, 

 or blasting, consuming fires. 

 Through their branches the 

 almost unbelievable mes- 

 sage runs — 'These men 

 worship God with us.' " 



Although California's 

 forest reserve takes its 

 name from the redwood, 

 the peculiar and prevailing 

 tree, yet its value as a park 

 is augmented by the fact 

 that within its limits are to 

 be found nearly every va- 

 riety of forest growth pe- 

 culiar to the Pacific Coast. 



The other trees include 

 firs, pines, oaks of several 

 species, the madrono, 

 buckeye, California nutmeg, 

 manzanita, while the 

 shrubs and flowers of the 

 park run well into the hun- 

 dreds, and under the fall- 

 en foliage are fungi gar- 

 dens of exquisite, half hid- 

 den beauty. 



These trees and this for- 

 est entrance the beholder, 

 and uplift with a conscious 

 awe and sublimity, not 

 aroused by man-made tem- 

 ples or cathedrals. 



It took Titanic power 

 and aeons of Time to make 

 this place. Dr. J. C. Bran- 

 ner. President of Stanford 

 University and one of the 

 most famous geologists of 

 his day, finds fourteen for- 

 mations in this area and nine distinct and far-reaching 

 geological disturbances recorded in the rocks, leaving 

 the strata folded and crushed, impossible of clear defi- 

 nition, but affording a reason for the marvelous fecundity 

 and variety of the vegetation. This Basin as finally left 

 for man is a series of ravines and ridges. The creeks 

 are numerous, fed by living springs which gush forth 

 from mountain sides at altitudes of from one to two 

 thousand feet. These springs are, some of them, clear as 

 crystal, and many of them are impregnated with mineral 



TIIK FAMOUS SANTA CLARA TREE 



Awe-inspiring and impressive these giant trees stand — the oldest living 

 things on earth — an ever-new source of reflection to men. 



substances. The stream that flows past the Governor's 

 Camp is called Opal Creek, on account of its color, due 

 to mineral content. A chalybeate spring, to the west, is 

 large enough and strong enough to transform the brook 

 into a stream of liquid gold. 



It makes a fall of about 60 feet in a shimmering shower 

 of gold, of a beauty altogether beyond expression in 

 words. It soon reaches another drop of about equal dis- 

 tance, the water changing in transit into copper color. 

 Again it falls as bronze and after flowing a few hundred 



yards leaps over another 

 |)recipice, a sheet of silver. 

 When streams fall a 

 thousand feet in a mile of 

 distance it is inevitable 

 that there should be num- 

 erous picturesque cascades 

 and these form no small 

 part of the charm of this 

 woodland. 



The California Redwood 

 Park is not only a sanctu- 

 ary and a sanatorium for 

 world-weary men and 

 women, but it is a haven 

 of refuge for birds and 

 animals. No guns or dogs 

 are allowed within its 

 limits, and deer and squir- 

 rels show no sign of fear. 

 As Virginia Garland ex- 

 I)resses it in writing, the 

 trees in Sempervirens Park 

 are looking down on a dif- 

 ferent manner of men, and 

 they no longer dread the ax 

 and the saw. 



When acquired by the 

 state the forest of the Big 

 Basin was inaccessible ex- 

 cept on foot or on horse- 

 back over a trail dating 

 from the days of Indian 

 occupation, and it required 

 as much time to arrive 

 from the town of Boulder 

 Creek, twelve miles distant, 

 as it does now to make the 

 run from San Francisco in 

 an automobile. The park is now reached over a well 

 graded road from Santa Cruz via Boulder Creek, or from 

 the Santa Clara side over the new state highway via the 

 town of Saratoga, opened in 191 5. An auto stage runs 

 from Boulder Creek and also from Saratoga during the 

 season. Private automobile tourists usually enter by 

 one route and return by the other. 



It is no disparagement of the forest or of the wonders 

 of the redwoods to state that the trip thither is perhaps 

 as attractive and compensating as time spent in the com- 



