230 Trees in American History 



grew all over the northern half of the earth. Se- 

 quoias turned to stone have been found in 

 Greenland. Greenland then was "green" indeed, 

 a lovely spot on the earth's surface. Now it is a 

 frozen waste; these stone trees alone remind us 

 of what it was like ages ago. 



To-day, in the twentieth century, but a few 

 of these sequoias remain. Their home is on the 

 western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, 

 in California, where they grow more than a 

 mile above the level of the sea. 



These trees of wonderful age were first dis- 

 covered less than a hundred years ago. In 1841 

 an old hunter and explorer named John Bid well 

 was making a trip on foot through the mountain 

 woodlands of eastern California. One day he 

 came upon a group of monster trees. There were 

 at least a hundred of them standing together. He 

 had never seen trees half so large as these, and 

 when he returned to his home he told his friends 

 wonderful tales of the forest giants he had seen. 



Those trees are now owned by the government 

 of the United States. They form what is known 

 as the Calaveras Grove. During the last few 

 years the government has bought several groves 



