TREE RECORDS: LENGTH 53 



Accordingly, a trip to the northerly Calaveras Grove was made in 

 early July 1924, by stage from Stockton. This grove was the first 

 one discovered and the marble slabs with tree names are reminiscent 

 of the pioneer days. The hotel is picturesquely situated at the edge 

 of the grove and nearby is the Dance Hall mentioned by Mark 

 Twain. This hall is on the stump of the first big tree cut (1853) and 

 the early difficulty in penetrating such immense trunks is apparent, 

 for in this case it was done by large auger-holes made on opposite 

 sides toward a selected diameter. These holes show in the great butt- 

 log still lying close to the hall. This tree was quick-growing and 

 estimated to have some 1,200 or 1,400 rings only. It was probably 

 the one from which a tracing of the whole set of rings was made 

 about 1865. 



The road, as it approaches the hotel, formerly passed between the 

 "Sentinels," two fine sequoias, but one had fallen the previous year 

 and a boring in it at some 50 feet from the original ground-level, 

 checked by a similar boring from another fallen tree, gave a perfect 

 start in dating the trees in this grove. This actual dating, however, 

 proved unnecessary, for it was perfectly easy to date all the records 

 obtained by comparison with the known records in the more southerly 

 groves. The trees in this grove are standing and, therefore, it was 

 difficult to get any satisfactory radials. However, a very few old 

 trees had fallen and small pieces were cut from three in inconspicuous 

 places by which the record was carried back some seven centuries. 

 Incidentally, this dating of fallen trees gave excellent data on the dura- 

 bility of sequoia bark and sap wood already referred to. 



This grove is small, perhaps one-third of a mile across, and lies in a 

 flattish, slightly depressed area with drainage to the southwest and 

 protected on the other sides by hills and ridges a few hundred feet 

 high. Its elevation is 5,000 feet and the precipitation in this neigh- 

 borhood is probably near 40 inches, mostly in winter. The ring- 

 growth is very complacent, with deficient rings showing but rarely. 

 The average size is smaller than expected. The easy cross-identification 

 with the tree records in the other groves shows that the entire area of 

 Sequoia gigantea in California is essentially a unit in its climatic reaction. 



A full day was given to collecting yellow-pine borings in connection 

 with the study of modern tree-records over the whole western area. 

 Trees were selected in an east-and-west line across the grove from the 

 hilltop back of the hotel to the ridge on the east, where the main 

 highway passes and the trail to the South Grove branches off. These 

 pines cross-identify well and are included in the western groups under 

 the abbreviation CVP. Eleven trees comprise this close group, but 

 three more were added at elevations nearly 2,000 feet above sea-level 

 in the vicinity of Murpheys. These three, however, give essentially 

 the same record as those near the grove and are included in the CVP 



