Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-05-22
AMIDST GIANT TREES
Presidents Party Visits Redwood
Groves of California
REGARDED AS FEATURE OF TRIP
Dimensions of Some of These
Kings of the Forest.
THEY GROW TO GREAT AGE



SAN FRANCISCO May 1.-THE visit by
the Presidential party to the grove of giant
redwood trees near Santa Cruz is to be
ranked among the features Of the trip Of
the presidential party This visit was
made on the 18th instant. The city Of
Santa Cruz and the grove are but short
ride from Del Monte, where the party
spent two delightful days Del Monte is
a winter and summer resort near the his
toric old town of Monterey, where the United
States flag was first raised in all this ter
ritory by Commodore Sloat, who captured
the Spanish fort at Monterey July Z. 1916.
A portion of the flagpole on which the flag
was raised is still preserved.
The town itself is a curious mixture of
modern architecture and ancient tile-roofed
adobe houses of the early Spanish days.
short distance from the old custom
house is small canyon that opens into the
beautiful bay of Monterey. Near It's mouth
is an old and stunted live oak. The first
mass in California was celebrated under
this tree three centuries ago. In 1902 Don
Sebastian ViZcaniO, under orders from Phil
ip ii of Spain. entered the harbor with two
priests and a body of soldiers and took pos
session of the country in the name of the
king. He named the place Monterey in
honor of the Count of Monterey, who was
then governor of Mexico.
The bay supplies much of the fish sup
piled to the San Francisco market, and
curious place to visit is the Chinese fishing
village located on the rocky banks of the
bay. The Chinese do most of the fishing
TO supply both their own people and other
races Some of the fish they catch are
dried and sent back to China. The kind
they are especially fond of is known as
the squid. 1t is an ugly looking little fish,
almost as soft as jelly. and containing few
bones The white people do not eat the
ThE fch
upon drying boards until they become
shriveled. When they are well dried they
are sent to San Francisco for shipment
PACK to CHINA for consumption in that coun-
try. The Monterey fishermen get as much
as cents pound for fish. but by the time
they get on the retail market they are
worth good price. Monterey bay is
placid body of water, and the Cinnamon 90
many miles from shore in their small fish
Ing boats. Their village Is a dirty, foul
smelling place.
Going to the Big Trees.
Leaving Del Monte Monday morning the
party was soon at Santa Cruz, a thriving
little city right on the waters of the Pa
cific. Five miles above there, in the Santa
Cruz mountains, and on the banks of the
San Lorenzo river, is a grove of big trees.
The party was taken there on a narrow
gauge railroad and by vehicles A lunch
was served in the grove In the dark shade
OF the mammoth trees. Among the largest
trees were two which have been named
the Giant" and the General Grant The
Giant is sixty-fve feet in circumfer-
ence and 3O6 feet high, with seventy
feet broken off the top One of the trees
is named in honor of General Fremont
who is said to have camped in it's hollow
In the winter of 1916 while. on his way to
Monterey. These trees, however, are not
by any means among the largest. The
largest trees in the world are in the Gala
veras and Marlposa groves, some distance
from the small grove visited by the party
The Calaveras is the first grove of big trees
discovered in this country. There are be-
tween nineteen and one hundred trees of
large size. The Mariposa grove is in the
Yosemite valley, and at an altitude Of
about $500 feet above the sea.
In 1853 one of the large trees of the
CalaVeras grove was cut down. 1t was
ninetysix feet in circumference and 3O2
in height. California writer tells a
story of being one of a party of thrty-two
people dancing a cotillon the stump,
there being seventeen musicians and look
| ers-on in addition, a total of forty-nine oc-
| cupants of its surface. The telling Of the
| tree was an immense job 1t would have
| looked ludicrOuS to attempt chopping down
the giant tree, and finally the plan was
adopted of boring 1t off with pump augurs.
| Five men were engaged twenty-five days
| in accomplishing the task. In some places
| the bark on the tree was two feet thick.
| The tallest sequoia that ever grew was
| 100 feet in circumference at It's base and
| over 400 feet high A person could ride
| erect through it's hollow on horseback a
| distance of ninety feet. The many big
| trees in the Calaveras grove are named
| after prominent people.
The average size of the trees in the
| Mariposa grove is larger than that in the
| Calaveras, and there are several trees
! larger than in the latter
Ages of the Big Trees.
| The opinions Of scientists is that these
| trees will live to be 5000 years old, and
that some of the largest living trees are
| half that old now. They never die a nat
ural death, 1t is stated and do not suffer
from the diseases that attack other trees
Either fire, lightning or storms must cut
off their existence. The age Of one that
| was cut down in the Calaveras grove was
| / 800 years Another that was cut down In
the Kings river forest was 1900 years. The
scientists reach the age by counting the
annual rings that grow in the wood. 1t IL
| believed that many trees now living were
| In existence before the birth of Christ.
The redwood tree exists only in ten iso.
| lated groves on the west slope of the Sierra
| Nevada mountains. and nowhere else In