Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1890-06-18

u uAh - "AAlAtuN bAdlANll anu
with an excrescerce to mar It's SYM
metrical beauty 1t is atout 81 feet in
diameter, AMI Is tie most completely
faultless specimen of the old and giant
sCqu ia That | have ever seen. "Old
Sequn!a," the biggest tree in the State,
lies about 2)u yards down n sloping hill
TO tile southwest of this tree, the ''Liv-
ing ant The Yosemite stage road
here p 'sseS directly under the high up
and uverhanSing branches of the ''Liy-
Ing Giant. The local and distinguish
ing name of this stage turnpike. from
the others ealing into the Yosemite, is
rhe Big Oak Flat Road" so named
from hIying its cary initial point at
Big Oak Fiat, famous at first as 4 very
rich placer mining camp and forever
now as Bret Earte's Roaring Camp"
The tree "'OII Sequoia" Is but a
blackened and charred stump on TWO of
lis sides, and when within 100 feet of
its roots one feels YeXed within himself
for having been foolish enough TO
tramp out Of his way for such disap-
loiutIug result still curiosity VIII
impel hIm TO keep on until he Is within
few feet OF the remains OF this once
greatest Of all SequOia monsters. At the
distance Of some 81 feet from its roots
the remaining immensely of this tree
begins TO force iJself upon the percep-
tion or the heho.der, and when one has
reached It's very btSe and partly circled
IT, curiOs " i changed TO wonder, and
upOu beholdlug tlIe burnt cavity within
it, roots, wonder - awe.
Tie tree is best approached from the
'a~t- Oue crosses a little brook auC
immediately stauds upon shattered
and PARTIALLY burned mass frOm the
gIeat tree Itself. Th I ece Is Inc II
feet wide. 3 feet long and feet tn OK,
and Is distant fr IN tine remaining main
body of the tree Iully 3JJ feet. Great
fragments Of chaTTrd wool still extend
into the underg r,wth behind US, upon
the east side OF the brook, to the west
bank of which We have Just crossed.
Fragments which fell from tile tree
during the cOuiidgratIOn, Of immense
size, lie y ia upon each other IN Il solid
mass, eN;en ling from the place upon
viii h We stand to almost the very b5t-e
OF the remaining portion OF tuls re-
mainlng part, directly in front of u, i
a living mass, appearing from our
standpoint Ike a stub broken OF at
about midway its height. This piece
is, measuring from lis extreme eis-s at
sAANhAA v AAAAAANN aAA'fN AAAN AAf-AA.As AN- -
feet in diameter. The whole TemaIu-
ing c rcuit OF the tree l. III feet. This
lar.,s 81 remaiu'us portion ~ which We
are EaZlug IS then Il feet ia diameter
AMI ab ut l6J feet high Its bark i
as fresh and SliStrniug IN the sun Is
that of any Of its uuiujuTed and living
ueighbnrs.
The vitality of this remaIui"g z p0r-
tion of this tree Is attested by the pres
ence within some 20 feet OF it, shat
tered top OF one living branch OF four
feet or more In diameter, Earring =
thick mass of brilliantly NlyId green
fJliage. No otter branches living are
left upon il, and only TWO or three
charred remnants Of branches have been
spared by tie tire.
The tree stanis upon the gently ris-
ing slope of hill, and when we climb
up to get around its western face IL Is
10 see but two blackened masses OF its
wood nearest To Us, and OF some % feet
high. We look thr ugh them and up
ward at this blackened wall of forty
one feet wide and l6j feet high. and
can scarcely credit our senses that the
other side of this wall is rs freshly
alive as before this tree was touched by
fire.
standing upon the west side OF the
stump one looks down into a deep, par
tIally Dlackened cavity, where the fire
burned down into the roots for prOba-
bly, some twenty feet originally, but the
action of time and its successive win
tiers has partly filled the hole with an
illuvial deposit, SO that the depression
is ut present about ten feet deep. Upon
descending into this vault one seems tn
be entombed in a vast and blackened
wooden crater. 1t IS here that the i'm
mensity of this vegetable mammoth l.
the most fully appreciated, and it Is
scarcely possible TO believe that there
was ever one single tree of the enor-
nous dimensions of this shattered and
charred giant
The history of the rise and fall of this
verira5le monarch OF the sequoiadom
is as plainly written upon its remains
and its surroundings as though it had
been cOmmemOrated upon an everla>t-
ing tablet. OF course its age IS alto
gether coujectural. If reliance Can be
placed upon the consecutive yearly ring
theory, there must have been enough of
them about tie greatest girth of this
vegetable behemOth To have made I
some 81 60 years old. To judge by the
exceeding symmetry of tie best pre-
served members remaining OF this Tou-
Iumne grove. Old SequoIl mast have
been a wonderfully beautiful tree, con-
sidering its immense SIZE 1t also MAJ
have been close on 10 five hundred feet
high.
/ say may have been, because the
sequoia is very Disappointing regarding
altitude, il bt ing the rule for the species
to grow TO an average altitude of = U
feet, or some over IN the larger spec;-
mems, without putting forth any large
branches. thus preserving q compare
tive eyeuness OF diameter and bulk for
that distance, then 10 suddenly put out
a multitude of large boughs. which
rapidly diminish the balance OF the
shaft. which then tapers suddenly 10 a
point resembling nothing 50 much a. u
freshly slIarpened lead reucil, excepting
for Its branching
These causes might have made Old
Seauoia but little taller than his neigh
bors. say $50 feet. The violence ot the
winter storms IS alsD greatly liable To
break on the brittle aad attenuaied
tops, with their great weight of foli3ge,
if they reach up much above the gene
raj level of the surrounding forest.
Still the wood here Is altogether 40
dense, and the entire grove occupies 50
sheltered position. that 1t Is possible