THE CALAVERAS GROVE OF 



BIG TREES 



Reasons for Their Preservation by the Federal Government 



BY 

 MRS. LOVELL WHITE 



Chairman, Calaveras Big Tree Committee, Outdoor Art League of California, 



""THE Calaveras Groves of Big Trees 

 * were discovered by Gen. N. P. 

 Chipman, of California, in 1841. The 

 existence of the Big Trees, those 

 giants of the forest, became known 

 over the entire world so soon as the 

 slow methods of transportation then 

 in vogue in California could carry the 

 news of their discovery abroad. When 

 the truth concerning the story of the 

 Big Trees was verified, distinguished 

 scientists from the great centers of 

 learning in Europe visited the newly 

 revealed mammoth groves, as they 

 were sometimes called. The north 

 grove contains 101 big trees and the 

 south grove, some six miles removed, 

 claims 1,380. 



About this time a man came from 

 England in the interest of the world's 

 fair to be held in the Crystal Palace in 

 London. He purchased from the own- 

 er one of the largest and most beauti- 

 ful trees in the north grove, called the 

 "Mother of the Forest." He paid ten 

 thousand dollars for the tree and killed 

 her by literally skinning her alive. By 

 the. aid of sharp instruments he took 

 the thick bark in sections from her 

 body and thus left the mighty "Mother 

 of the Forest," white and bare and an 

 almost tragic figure, standing in the 

 midst of the green woods. Removing 

 the bark to London, he there erected 

 a cylinder of the sections into the ex- 

 act shape of the denuded tree. This 

 similitude of a Calaveras big tree was 

 viewed bv hundreds of thousands of 

 people and the fame of the California 

 big trees became world-wide. 



Tt is now six years since the grove 

 passed, by purchase, from the hands of 



the original owner, who kept a hotel in 

 the north grove, into the possession of 

 another, who evidently was inspired 

 with more practical ideas than were 

 entertained by the tree lover who ex- 

 ploited the groves as mere show 

 places. 



When the sale was reported by the 

 newspapers, the women of the Califor- 

 nia Club, of San Francisco, at once 

 took action toward the end of preserv- 

 ing to future generations a wonderful 

 heritage worthy our name and coun- 

 try. The California congressional del- 

 egation was instructed to present a bill 

 to Congress asking the government to 

 purchase the groves. 



The Big Tree bill has easily passed 

 the Senate at each of its six years of 

 history in Congress, but it can proceed 

 no further and lodges ignobly in the 

 House of Representatives, where ex- 

 isting difficulties seem insurmountab'e. 

 Meantime the price of timber holdings 

 has increased so rapidly on the Pacific 

 coast that property has almost doubled 

 in value, and the problem of acquiring 

 the trees becomes more and more com- 

 plex. The age, size, beauty, and un- 

 surpassed grandeur of these prehis- 

 toric giants among trees lend them a 

 worth beyond the mere commercial es- 

 timate put upon them by lumber- 

 men. We are told that the Sequoia 

 Gigantia are the oldest living things 

 on' earth today, and that they can only 

 be found in detached groves on the 

 western slopes of the Sierra Nevada 

 Mountains. They are priceless, and 

 their advent in the world's history an- 

 tedates that of the patriarchs of 

 the Bible. These matchless treasures 



