Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-15
TREES OF SANTA CRUZ
One Of Them the Largest in
the World.
DIAMETER OF 80 FEET
AT THE HOME OF THE GROWER
OF THE LoGANBERRY.
Curious Mountain Peaks Known as
vancouver's Pinnacles and How
They Were Rediscovered.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS
specal Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
Record Herold.
SANTA CRUZ, Cal, September Z, 1915.
There are seven groves of big trees" In
California. and most of them are now pro-
tected within forest reserves. One OF them
Is five miles from Santa Cruz. popular
summer resort Another. Of $500 acres, Is
at 1.-The Big Basin" sixteen miles from
Santa Cruz, which the state Of California
has recently purchased for $25OOoO and re-
served as a public park. The third Is In
Calaveras county, famous mining region,
east of Sacramento-the scene of many OF
Bret Harte's stories. The fourth is In Tuo-
lumne county, between Calaveras ana the
Yosemite. The Marposa grove. at the
southern entrance of the Yosemite, Is fifth.
The General Grant National Park, in Fres-
no county, and the Sequoia National Park,
in Tulare county, both Of them just west of
Death Valley, complete the list. 1t is a
popular impression that the big trees" are
all in the same section, but this is a great
mistake. The groups l have named are
widely scattered. All of them are accessf-
BILE, but the forest at Santa Cruz 10 most
convenient and the only one that can be
reached without a long stage ride. A mar
row-gauge railroad runs trains to 1t every
hour in about thirty minutes; the Big Basin
FarK can De TedCneu ny d pledSdul oiAtCOh-
mile drive; Calaveras grove Tuolumne,
Mariposa General Grant Park and the Sc
quota Park are all reached by stage rides
of from forty to seventy-tive miles.
The Santa Cruz Forest.
The Santa Cruz forest is not so large as
some of the other groups, but 1T Is good
type of them all. and people whose time Is
limited can get an adequate idea by coming
here and taking this, the easiest and short
est route.
The big trees" (Sequoia sempervirens)
found al Santa Cruz are cousins of the Sc
quota gigantea foundin the other parks, and
are from the family and about the
same size. The name "Sequoia' is said to
have been given them by an Alabama bot
anist. who came out here and described
them in an early day, although he did not
first discover them. The name originally
belonged to a Cherokee chief in that state,
who was very tall and very strong and had
fine character, which the botanist greatly
admired Others explain that the word was
derived from the Latin 'sequor."
The trees are not in one mass. They are
scattered through a forest of massive pines,
cedars and other varieties, but the Santa
Cruz Park can be seen thoroughly in few
hours. There are no accommodations at the
forest however, only few old buildings
at which Photographs and curioS are sold.
There is not even restaurant. People can
visit the grove and get back to town be-
tween the ordinary hours for meals, it is
true, but there should be a first-class hotel
in the forest so that visitors would not be
compelled to hurry back and forth. The
owners Of the property are the heirs OF
the late Joseph w. WEIGH. for many years
one OF the proprietors of the Alta CaIifor-
MAN, a newspaper of San Francisco. 1t
was formerly part of a Spanish grant,
Rfncon de la Canada, and turned over
to the late Governor Stanley, formerly Of
South Carolina, a fee for his services
in a lawsuit
Largest Tree in the World.
In 1865 MIR. WEIGH bought from Governor
Stanley 1855 acres, containing one hundred
trees more than twelve feet in diameter, the
largest. called the cathedral" being
thirty-three feet in diameter and 1Oe feet
in circumference. This is claimed to be the
largest tree in the world. The highest tree
In the Santa Cruz forest is called 1.-The
giant" 1t towers 3O6 feet toward the sky,
and was seventy-tive feet taller a few years
ago when it's tip was broken off by a
storm. More than sixty trees in the grove
are over 800 feet high. One of them
recently cut down and 10000 split shakes"
which are large shingles, were cut from 1t
and sold for S11 a thousand on the cars;
$50 railway ties were cut from the limbs,
which sold for SO cents each Thus the
proceeds brought a total of 1927, which is
probably a record price for one tree No
more of the giants will be cut, however.
While all scientists do not agree in their
estimates with exactness, David Starr Jor-
dan, president of Stanford University;
John Muir and other celebrated bOtanistS,
assert that the larger of these trees
are five and six thousand years old, and
some of them may be even older. John
Muir actually counted the rings in one that
had fallen down and found it to be $500
years old Thus these amiabe giants were
living in the time of Abraham and Noah
and must have endured the flood If our
biblical calculations are correct. We do
know AnVthin0 of them earlier than
the days of Fremont who camped here
during the Mexican war and found a Mex
lean tannery in opera ton in this forest, at
which he renewed his boots, harness and
saddles before resuming his campaign.
They show you where he had his kitchen,
in the trunk of one of the giants, and the
hole that he used for chimney. General
Sherman was also here when he a
lieutenant in the army, and one of the
largest of the trees bears his name Others
are christened in honor of Washington,
Grant, Loncoln, Mckinley and other PreSi-
dents, including Theodore Roosevelt, and
the latter, when he was here not long ago.
modestly requested Mr.. WEIGH, the owner
of the forest to have his signboard taken
down and the inscription painted in smaller
letters for the present one is twice as large
that of any other President.
The Loganberry.
We drove out to the big Trees In a six
horse coach. escorted by a committee OF
prominent citizens, and we ate our lunch
con In the eternal shade, with carpet OF
pine needles. soft as velvet, under our feet.
On the way home we drove to the garden
of Judge Logan, one OF the prominent citi-
zens of this valley. who has done much to
promote horticulture as well as harmony
among his fellow-citizens. He Is the in
ventor of new fruit which is now on the
market and has become very popular. 1t
Is called the '1oganberry." 1t is a cross
between the wild blackberry and the tame
raspberry, and has a distinct flavor Of Its
own.
We ate our first '1oganberries' at the
Alvarado Hotel at Albuquerque and were
told that they were grown by Burbank.
and were named In honor of Gen. John A.
Logan of Illinois. That impression pre-
walls generally throughout the southwestern
territories, where they are now in great
demand, being the most popular berry on
the market. l understand that they are
not shipped any farther east than Albu-
querque, as the supply is at present a lin
tied one. Judge Logan. who first produced
them. has been for twenty-five years one
of the leading lawyers of this section and
has served two terms on the heurh He