Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1900-09-20

on, making a total Of forty-nine oc-
cupants of its surface at one time.
The tree was 302 feet high, and at the
ground it measured SO feet in circum-
ference. To chop it down was consid-
cred an impossibility, so it was bore
off with pump-augurs, the job occupy
ing five men twenty-five days. After
the stem had thus been severed from
the stump, it could not be overthrown,
and two and a half days were spent
in inserting wedges and driving them.
Then OPPORTUNITY, gust of wind came
and blew the tree over, the earth trem-
bling at its fall Us if with an earth
quake. Careful count of the rings
showed that this giant was already a
centuary old when Christ was born.
The Calaveras grove occupies belt
1920 feet long by 700 feet wide, in a
depression between two slopes. There
are just 101 trees of large size and a
considerable number OF small ones.
Several have fallen since the grove
was discovered, one has been cut down
and the bark has been stripped from
another up to the hight of 116 feet.
This bark was formed into a room at
the Sydenham Crystal Palace, and was
lost in the fire there a few years ago.
The two trees thus destroyed were the
finest in the grove. The tallest one
now standing is the keystone State"
and the largest and finest is the EN-
pire State
The tree stripped of it's bark has
long been known as the mother of
the forest" Without the bark it
measures So feet in circumference at
a height Of 20 feet from the base.
Seventy feet from the ground it is
4S1a feet in girth. It's height is 241
feet; the vertical distance to the first
branch is 1877 feet, and it is estimated
to contain 527, 900 feet of sound inch
lumber. Near by lies PROSTATE the
father of the forest" which was even
larger, measuring over 400 feet in
height, with a circumference of 10
feet at the base.
Another notable tree in this grove
is known as "Smitss Cabin" and was
for years the home of an old trapper
named Andrew Jackson Smith. it's
burnt-out hollow trunk providing him
with room Fl by 16 feet Some years
before he occupied this natural shelter
a tremendous storm blew down the
father of the forest and in falling
this uoble monarch struck "old Her.
cules," and old-time rival, shivering
the upper part of the latter Fire has
eaten out the heart of the father of
the forest" so that one can ride erect
on horseback through the trunk for a
distance of eighty-one feet. The dis
lance from the base of the trunk to
the first branch is nearly 200 feet.
"Old Hercules was the largest stand
ing tree in the grove in 1862, being
325 feet high and measuring ninety-five
feet in circumference at the ground
He too was blown down in a storm.
"Old Goliath" succumbed to the same
storm that overthrow "Old Hercules,
and both catastrophes were witnessed
by Andrew Jackson Smith, who was
living in Smiths Cabin" at the time.
He was rather surprised, indeed, that
his own shelter was not demolished.
"Old Goliath" has a circumference of
over 100 feet at the base, and one of
his limbs was over eleven feet in di-
ameter. In the southern part of Cal
veras grove is the tree of refuge" so
called because ten cattle sought shelter
in it one severe winter They found
protection from the storm, but perish
ed of starvation,a their bones re-
main there to this day to tell the tale.
Late in autumn the big tree bursts
into bloom, myriads of cones crowd
ing the ends of the slender sprays of
brownishy -ellow foliage and giving
ground beneath is busted with golden
pollen. The fertile cones are bright
grass green, two inches long, and
made up of scales densely packed,
with from five to eight at the base
of each scale. One cone, therefore,
contains from 200 to 300 seeds. No
other Sierra confer produces nearly
SO many seeds, millions being ripened
annually by a single tree. Few of
them terminate, however, and those
which do sprout rarely survive.
The sequola has been introduced in
Europe and is now widely cultivated
there, but the climate does not seem
to suit it very well. Occasionally it
has been induced to survive in the
eastern part of the United States, and
at Rochester there are two big trees
thirty-five feet in height. In Califor-
mia the southern groves show some re-
production, through which there is
hope of perpetuating the species, but
in the northern groves it hardly holds
its own. There are now only ten iso-
lated patches of these trees in exist
ance. and forty mills and logging
camps are attacking those for timber.
Unfortunately. the numbering of the
big trees is done by such methods
tibet more than half of the material is
wasted. Often the huge dogs are bro
ken up with gunpowder as a prelim-
mary to moving them. The trees