Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-09-20
TIMBER SACRIFICE
FAMOUS REDWOOD OF CALIFOR-
MA DISAPPEARING.
FOREST RESERVE URGED
Logging Operation Threaten Destruct-
ion TO the Largest and Oldest Liv-
ing Things-Thirty-two Persons
Able to Stand on a Single Stump,
and Musicians There Too.

The last Of the big trees-the giant
redwoods of the Pacific coast-are
threatened with destruction, and con
gress IS to be asked to save a few OF
them at all hazard. 1t is proposed
by the forester OF the United States
Clifford Pinchot, who is urging the
matter, that the famous Calaveras
grove, in California, shall be purchas-
ed from its present owner and set a.
side as government reservation
Thus few OF these botanical wonders
may be preserved for the admiration
of future generations. They are the
largest Of all living things On the
earth to-day, says the Detroit Free
Press. They are the oldest of all
living things. Some Of the redwoods
now rearing their lofty domes of fol-
iage on the Pacific coast were flourish
ing young trees when the pyramids
Of Egypt were built-a fact which has
been ascertained with positiveness by
counting the rings of annual growth
III the several trunks of individuals OF
equal size. They are of great scienti-
fic interest, inasmuch as they repre-
sent surviving prehistoric genus OF
trees that once grew widely over the
globe.
Before the glacial period the genus
of big trees, called sequoia, flourished
widely in the temperate zones of three
continents. There are many species,
and Europe, Asia and Africa each had
share. But when the ice fields NOV
ed down from the north the Iuxuriant
vegetation of the age declined and
with it these multitudes of trees. One
after another the different kinds sue
cumbed, and when the ice receded only
two species, the big tree and the red
wood, survived. Both grew in Cal
ifornia, each separate from the other,
and each occupying, in comparison to
its former territory, mere island Of
space. AS we know them now, the
redwood lives only in a narrow strip
of the coast ranges ten to twenty
miles wide, extending from the south
ern border of Washington to the Bay
Of Monterey, while the big tree is
found only in small groves scattered
along the west slope of the Sierra
Nevada Mountains, from the middle
fork Of the American River to the
head Of Deer Creek, 26O miles. The
utmost search reveals but ten main
groups, and the total number of siz-
able trees in those groups is limited
to figures in the thousands All the
specimens remarkable for size do not
exceed 500.
The big tree is unique in the world.
1t is the largest, oldest and most ma
jesticaIly graceful of all trees. Scare
est of all known tree species it is
the best living representative of a
former geologic age. 1t has come
down through the ages simply by
reason Of it's supurb powers of defense
against hostile conditions. The bark
is sometimes as much as two feet
thick, and is almost nOncombustible.
The oldest specimens felled are still
sound to the heart. Yet, with all its
advantages, the big trees do not seem
to have increased their range since the
glasial epoch. They have only just
managed to hold their own on a little
strip of country where the climate
was locally favorable.
At the present time the only grove
really safe from destruction is the
Mariposa, which is by no means the
most interesting. Most Of the others
are either in process of or in danger
Of being logged. The very finest Of
all, the Calaveras grove, with the
biggest and tallest trees and the most
unc0ntaminated surroundings, has re-
Gently been purchased by lumber
man. The Sequoia and General Grant
National park, which are supposed to
embrace and give security to a large
part Of the remaining big trees, are
eaten into by a sawmill each and by
private timber claims. The rest Of the
arches are in a fair way to disap-
pear-in Calaveras, TuOlumne, Fresno
and Eulare counties they are now dis
appearing the ak. JUDGED, a ma
jority of the big trees of California,
certainly the best of them, are owned
by people who have every right, and
in many cases every intention, to cut
them into lumber.
The Calaveras grove was the first
grove of big trees discovered, and the
story is that a hunter named Dowd
came across it by accident in the spring
Of 1852. This man was employed by
company to supply fresh meet to
gangs of workmen engaged in the con-
struction Of canal CHANGING to
wound a grizzly bear, he pursued the
animal and came upon one of the i'm
mense trees. When he returned to
camp and told about the wonder he
had seen, he was laughed at, his tale
being taken for a hunters yarn. In
the following year, however, this
same tree was cut down, and, after the
bark had been removed, it's diameter
across the solid woods feet above
ground, was found to be 25 feet.
Of this tree J. N. Hutchins speaks
in his Heart Of the Sierras. He says:
Incredible as it may appear, July f.
1854, the writer formed one Of a cotiI-
lon party Of thirty-two persons dane
ing on stump; in addition to whom