The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1870-08-16

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in small valley, near the head waters Of
the San Antonio, ,one of the largest streams
in central Calaveras, California, and five
miles east Of the Falls of said stream,
which are one hundred and fifty feet in
height, and surrounded by the grandest
Of scenery.
ROUTE TO THE GROVE.
From Stockton, to the head OF steam
boat navigation, on an arm OF the San
Joaquin, also, on the line of the great
overland railroad, it is in a straight line,
but seventy miles to the trees by the
stage road, through Copperopolis, seventy
five miles. Two lines of daily stages run
on this road the year round. Leaving
Stockton at 6 A. NJ, the visitor arrives at
Copperopolis by II the same morning
Leaving Copperopolis at ] P. NJ, by stage,
he passes over the Bear Mountain range,
through a succession of picturesque little
valleys to Altaville, Angels, Vallecito,
and arrives at Murphys by 6P. NJ. Here,
the fatigues of the journey, a lovely viii
lage, and irst-class hotel invites rest
for the night. He is about fifteen miles
from the Grove. The distance is made
in the cool of the succeeding morning, in
comfortable stage-coach, over smooth
and well graded road and by ten or
eleven o'clock A. NJ, after a gradual as
cent of two thousand five hundred feet
above Murphy's, and four thousand two
hundred above the Bay of San Francisco,
he is medtatiug under the shadows of
the "Washingtonia Gigantic" This is
the route taken from San Francisco and
the Bay region to reach the Grove. There
is another stage route which runs from
Stockton to San Andreas. avoiding Bear
Mountain, and which is seven miles long
er than the preceding one, A stage line
also plies between Sonora, Columbia and
Murphy's-all the roads from the west
and south converging at the latter place.
Connecting with stages from Yo Semitic
Valley. From Murphy's upward the
road is through splendid forest of pine,
cedar and fir, intermixed on the stream
with willow, alder, hazel, ash, and broad
leafed maple, and many varieties of Aow-
er shrubs.
ACCOMMODATIONS AT THE. GROVE.
The Grove Hotel contains rooms for
the comfortable accommodations of fifty
or sixty guests, has billiard table, bar,
verandahs, parlors, ball room, the most
pleasant sleeping apartment, and furnishes
the best of fare at The table. 1t faces the
Grove, having the greater number of trees
to the left, looking from the verandah,
and the two "Sentinels" Immediately in
front. about two hundred yards to the
eastward.
The valley in which this Grove is sit.
uated contains of the of the sequoya
trees, ninety-three, not including those of
from one to ten years growth. There
are also hundreds of sugar and pitch pine
of astonishing proportions, reaching to the
height of two hundred and seventy-fve
feet, and having not unfrequently diam
eter of ten to eleven and half feet
Anywhere else these pines would be re-
garded as vegetable monsters. Here by
the side of the seqpoya, they lock like
dwarfs During the summer and spring
months this valley is exempt from the
heat of the lower country and from the
cold of the snow-range. Vegetation
blooms early in May, remaining fresh and
and green until the middle of October
The water is always pure and cold, and
the Hotel furnished with ice all through
the summer and autumn. Snow falls U.s.
ually about the middle of December, and
disappears from the Grove entirely by the
middle of April.
NOTABLE TREES AND GROUPS.
The Grove contains ten trees each
thirty feet in diameter, and over seventy
that are between fifteen and thirty feet.
Hittell, in his Resources of California"
says: "One of the trees which is down
The Father of the st'-must have
been four hundred and fifty feet high and
forty feet in diameter" In 1858, one of
the largest trees, ninety-two feet in cir.
cumference and over three hundred feet
high. was cut down Five men worked
twenty-five days in telling it, using large
augers. The trunk Of the tree has been
smoothed off, and now easily accommo-
dates thirty-two dancers. Theatrical per-
formances have been held upon it, and in
1858, newspaper-The Big Tree Bnl.
leten-was printed there.
Near the stump lies section Of the
trunk this is twenty-five feet in diane.
ter aud twenty-five feet long; beyond
lies the immense trunk as it fell, measur-
ing three hundred and two feet long from
the base of the stump to its extremity.
Upon this was situated a bar-room and
Ten Pin Alley, stretching along its upper
surface for distance Of eighty-one feet.
affording ample space for two alley-beds,
side by side.
About eighty feet from this stump
stand the Two Sentinels, each over three
hundred feet high, and the larger twenty
three feet in diameter. The carriage
road approaching the Hotel passes d.
rectly between the 1.-TWO Sentinels."
South Of the "Sentinels," and to the
right of the road as you approach them,
on the hillside stands tree ever fourteen
feet in diameter, which has been named
Oiu Oo"u, III houoi Vi the uincoNcier
of the Grove, which discovery was made
in 1852.
Starting from the Hotel for the walk
that visitors generally take, entering the
Grove by the left hand pathway, after
walking one hundred and twenty yards,
We come to the first clusters of sequoyas.
They are on our left, close at hand, and
were named respectively in 1865, "U. S.
Grant" Nv. T. Sherman" and -. b.
Mcpherson" after three leading Generals
in the Union army. To the right and
southwark thirty yards from these is
groupe of three unnamed trees.
Sixty yards east of "Grand' is the
pride Of the Forest" originally named
"The Eagle" 1t is eighteen feet in