Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1886-09-18
GIANTS OF THE FOREST
SOMETHING ABOUT THE BIG TREES
OF CALIFORNIA.
A Passageway in One Tree Trunk
Through Which Six = Horse
Team xyng Drivan

"A Passageway in One Tree Trunk
Through Which Six = Horse
Team was Driven.
Erastus Brooks describes in the New
York Nail and Express an interesting
trip which he has just made to the fa-
nous big trees of California. Mr.. Brooks
says:
The big trees, so famous in the coun-
try aud the world over, where they are
known, were the object of our last visit
after leaving the Yosemite Valley. II
cost a ride from o'clock in the morn
ing to 6 in the evening, with rest of
little more than an hour. One-half of
the ride, first from the valley and then
to the big trees, made double climb of
about 5000 feet from a level of 1000
feet above the sea. These high climbs,
even with six horses, mean but about
two niles an hour, and the descent is
less than five mfles. Our special errand
was to visit the big trees of California,
one OF the objects of our long journey
from home. From San Francisco and
back the cost was about fifty dollars for
each passenger, the distance being both
ways, rail and coach, about $50 miles
The extras, for extra trips, etc, are
not included in this charge. The best
hotels en- route charge you 81 each
day, and in the valley, except for food
and beds, are not comfortable. But to
the big trees. The land granted by the
State covers four sections, and the whole
is under the control of so-called
guardian" or caretaker, who knows
how to profit by his place in the sale of
cones, seeds, works in wood, canes, ETC.,
cut from the monarohs of the forest, dead
and living. There are several hundred
of these monarchs, and cutting or main
ing them in any way is forbidden by
law. But the law has not been respected,
and where the curious thousands and
more come each year the law is not likely
to be obeyed. We visited the largest of
the number, first ''the Grizzly Giant"
at Mariposa Grove, half burnt up years
gone by, by the fire fiends who, as herders
of sheep, campers or trampers, set fire
TO the woods. Three folrths Of all the
big trees have been thus scorched or
burned. Many of them, which seem
wholly dead in their lower trunks, flour
ish at their majestic tops. The Grizzly
Giant is thirty-thrce feet in diameter,
and the next in size is the "Wamona,"
measuring twenty weight feet in diameter.
The circumference OF the first was, by
our hasty measurement, ninety-five feet,
and the Wamona, under the limbs of
which We rode with our six-horse team
and twelve people, the tree covering the
four seated stage and more than the
height and length of two of the horses
aud the long and high stage. This pas
sageway had been cut from the body of
the tree.
Many of these mammoths of the forest
have honored names. One is called the
Washington, and one, the Lincoln, is
close at hand; Longfellow, Whittier,
Tennyson, Bryant. Brewster, Bowles,
Gray, Harvard, and l know not how
many Others have tree set apart by their
friends in memory of their moral worth
or bodily presence. The burning of
these trees as far as the fire -fiend has con-
sumed them, is not all work or record
of modern times. The fires of some of
the number were too long ago, and the
untutored Indian is charged with being
their first and greatest destroyer. Yet
no one can fail TO see just how they
look and what they are.
The trunk of the big tree we visited at
Puebla, on our way to the Pacific, had
before being cut down the modest age of
$50 years, and a circumference OF only
twenty light feet, but it cost $3.50 to cut
it down in June, 1888. 1t was and is the
oldest landmark of the country, and to
add to its elevation we are assured that
fourteen men hung upon one limb and
thirty-six persons were massacred while
camping near it. Buffalo Bill, Kit Car
son, Wild Bill and other Indian scouts
arc among those who were familiar with
the past history of this monarch of the
forest at Puebla; but the Puebla tree
was as a pigmy compared with the great
giants in the United States Park at Mari
posa.