78 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Photograph by Mark Daniels. THE BONES OF HIS ANCESTORS? 



These are lome of those fallen monarchs whose age is so much disputed. They are bent and twisted beyond anything that may be seen in the 

 standing trees. This rugged tangle of bonelike branches lies beside the drive and seems to cry out for burial. 



of the motor were it not for the unholy combination of 

 the modern six-cylinder machine with the freedom granted 

 the tourist by the owners of the property. As it is. 

 however, conditions would appear to be reversed; for, 

 with the average driver, the speed along these wonderful 

 drives is such that the constant prayer of the tourist is 

 that some accident may happen which will allow him suffi- 

 cient time to fix upon his retina one permanent picture of 

 the exquisite color harmonies of the sapphire bay, the 

 iv>ry-colored beach line, the silver-gray trunks of the 

 trees, and the deep blue and bright yellow-green of their 

 tops. 



Not only is the district one of exquisite beauty of land- 

 scape, but it is pregnant with romance and historical 

 interest. On December 10, 1602, almost twenty years 

 before the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock, 

 Don Sebastian Yiseiano landed on the peninsula and 

 took |x>ssession of the country in the name of the King 

 of Spain. Many romantic changes took place in the 

 administration of the district until about 1770, when 

 Monterey was selected as the capital of the State of 

 California and Don Caspar de Portola appointed the 

 first governor. The monuments to this famous char- 

 acter, whose name is interwoven with the history of the 

 State of California, are almost as plentiful in number as 

 are the elms in the State of Massachusetts under which 

 T.eorgc Washington lir-t took command of the Army of 

 the Potomac. More substantial and authenticated, how- 



ever, are the monuments that were left to the memory of 

 Father Junipero Serra, in the form of missions which 

 he erected throughout the State of California and in 

 which he endeavored to civilize the savage tribes. In 

 1771 this noted priest built the Mission del Rio Carmelo, 

 which still stands as one of the points of interest in this 

 historical district. The death of Father Serra, in 1784, 

 at this mission, where he was buried, marked the begin- 

 ning of the history of California as we know it. 



In 1846 Commodore Sloat landed with 250 men and 

 raised the flag of the United States over the custom- 

 house. The old custom-house still stands, as do the first 

 brick house, first lumber house, and the first theater in 

 California, and within a short walk of the most beautiful 

 bit of coast line and the most picturesque grove of trees 

 that are to be found on this continent. Whether it was 

 the beauty and charm of this place and its romantic his- 

 tory, or whether it was a clairvoyant power that gave him 

 knowledge of future hordes of tourists who might wish 

 to see one of his homes, is not known; but there is, 

 nevertheless, one of the homes in which Robert Louis 

 Stevenson dwelt in the old historic town of Monterey. 



There has been a great deal of speculation as to the 

 origin of these trees which take such strange and weird 

 shapes in their struggle for existance against the coastal 

 storms. Their trunks become gnarled and twisted and 

 take en the hue of the surrounding rocks. The dead 

 leaves and branches that lie in a clutter upon the ground 



