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James N.
Colonial Militia
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
October 24 2007
Status: offline
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 Posted - September 15 2012 : 3:43:23 PM
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I've just returned from another of my "flying vacations", this time in an altogether different direction than usual. I met Mike, my old chum from high school, at the Reno, Nevada airport where we rented a car and made a circuit of sites in the California Gold Rush region 1848 - 59, and the 1859 - 60's Comstock Lode, a facet of Civil War history I'd never thought much about before. This took us to places like Virginia City, Sacramento, Donner Pass, and Lake Tahoe, but it also enabled me to add another "bucket list" item: California's Giant Sequoyas, these in Calaveras Big Trees State Park near the charming Gold Rush town Murphys, named for two brothers who "struck it rich" here.
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This stand of Giant Sequoyas seems to have been the very first discovered by a white man, in this case a hunter supplying game for gold seekers in Murphys in 1852. Augustus Dowd was tracking a wounded grizzly when he came upon trees at least three times larger than any he'd ever seen before. It wasn't until he led a party of miners back to the area that he was believed. Naturally, they couldn't think of anything better than to cut down the largest, the Discovery Tree, whose stump and a section of trunk remains. At that, it took five men 22 days to accomplish the job, drilling holes in the trunk and using small explosive charges; conventional tools like saws and axes were too small!
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Another standing tree, the Mother of the Forest, was stripped of 60 tons ( ! ) of its 4" thick bark in sections to a height of 116 feet which was then shipped to New York and eventually London and reassembled as a "curiosity", though many who saw it still refused to believe it wasn't another hoax! Fortunately, their very uniqueness preserved most of them and helped save the town of Murphys from disappearing like so many of its neighbors once the gold played out. The curious continue to come and stay on the way in the 1856 Murphys Hotel, as we did, joining such luminaries as writers Bret Harte and Mark Twain and ex-president Ulysses S. Grant.
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We only had a morning to explore the North Grove, consisting of about 100 Sequoyas, intermixed with large Ponderosa and sugar pines and other conifers. A separate South Grove at a distance across a mountain gorge carved by the North Fork of the Stanislaus River recieves far fewer visitors.
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Root network from a fallen giant.
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Naturally the urge to further damage these couldn't be resisted once they became accessable to a motoring public; amazingly, the Pioneer Cabin Tree is still alive!
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Many of the largest bear the names of famous personalities of the period of first exploitation like the Abraham Lincoln Tree here. Probably best-known of these are the General Grant and General Sherman, not in this park but nearer Yosemite and discovered later.
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These huge trees, the oldest living things on earth and up to three times the height of a blue whale's length, are very difficult to give an adequate photographic impression of. Above is the Old Bachelor Tree seen from below; the following two pictures are taken from a greater distance and show it's top and trunk.
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Giant Sequoyas are difficult to date, even when cut down, because they don't ring the way other trees do; for that reason ages must be estimated - trees of this size are reckoned to be between 1200 - 3000 years old!
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View down the length of The Father of the Forest which has been lying here for over a century.
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Monadnock Guide
Council of Elders
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
March 14 2005
Status: offline
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Posted - September 15 2012 : 4:37:21 PM
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| Impressive doesn't describe these things, ... |
you can keep "The Change" |
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Wilderness Woman
Watcher of the Wood
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
November 27 2002
Status: offline
Donating Member |
Posted - September 18 2012 : 12:17:35 PM
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| I have also been fortunate to have visited this place to see these trees in person. Words and photos simply do not do them justice. When one is in their presence -- and I say their presence because they are living things that command respect -- one feels the presence of God. |
"It is more deeply stirring to my blood than any imaginings could possibly have been." |
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Calaveras Big Trees State Park, California
