During the 1870s a government survey "disclosed the remarkable quality of General Grant Grove, and Israel Gamlin was persuaded to give up his claim so the area could be preserved." However, this did not entirely stop logging in the area – in 1875 a sequoia was chopped down and a section sent to the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876. Reportedly, "eastern people refused to accept the exhibit as part of a single tree and called it the 'California Hoax'." The Centennial Stump, and most of the tree, remain as prominent features in Grant Grove: "Ladies from a nearby logging camp used to conduct Sunday school services for their children upon the stump."