The Irish standard., 1905-09-30
BIG TREE RESERVES.
FOREST GIANTS IN SEVEN CAL.
IFoRNIA GROVES.
Redwoods That Are Six Thousand
Years 0ld-Sor,e Historic In
cidents of Santa Cruz
Reserve.

There are seven groves Of big trees
in California. and most of them are
, now protected within forest reserves
One CT them is FIVE miles from Santa
Cruz, a popular summer resort. An
other Of $500 acres is at the Big
| Basln,' 16 miles from Santa Cruz.
which the state of California has re-
Gently purchased for s25O,000 and re.
served as public park. The third is
in Calaveras county, a famous mining
region east of Sacramento-the scene
OF many Of Bret Harte's stories. The
fourth is in Tuolumne county between
CalaNcras and the Yosemite. The
Marlposa grove at the southern en-
trance of the Yosemite is fifth. The
Gen. Grant national park in FRESNO
county and the SeQuoia national park
in iulare county, both OF them just
west OF Death valley. complete the list.
IL is popular impression. writes Will
liam f. Curtis, in the Chicago Record
| Herald, that the big trees" are all IN
the same section. but this is great
mistake. The groups have named arc
widely scattered. All of them are ac-
| Lessible, but the forest at Santa Cruz
is most convenient and the only one
that can be reached without long
| Stage ride. A narrow-gauge railroad
luns trains to it every hour in about
50 minutes; the Big Basin park can be
reached by pleasant l6-mile drive,
Caiaveras grove, Tuolumne, Marimsa,
Gen. Grant park and the Sequoia park
are all reached by stage rides of from
du to IS miles.
| The Santa Cruz forest is not so large
IS some OF the others. but it is good
type CT them all, and people whose
time is limited can get an adequate
iaea by coming here and taking this,
! the easiest and shortest route.
The big trees"-"e quoia semper-
vircns Sound at Santa Cruz are cou-
sins OF the "sequoia gigantes'' found in
the other parks and are from the same
| family and about the same size. The
name "sequoia" is said to have been
given them by an Alabama botanist
who came here and described them in
all early day, although he did not first
discover them. The name originally
leloLSed 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," which means
finished"
The trees are not in one mass. They
| are scattered through a forest of mas
sive pines, cedars and other varieties,
but the Santa Cruz park can be seen
thoroughly in few hours. There are
no accommodations at the forest, how
ever-only few old buildings at
which photographs and crrios arc sold
| 7 here is not even a restaurant. Poo
pie can visit the grove and get back
to town between the ordinary hours
for meals, it is true. but there shoill
lie a flrst-class hotel in the forest. SO
that visitors would not be compellc
to hurry back and forth The uwna"s
OF the property are the heir; OF the lata
Joseph w. WEIGH. TO many years one
o. ii proprietors of the Alta Callfor-
nian, a newspaper Of san Francisco.
| IL was formerly a part of IA Spanish
grant, Rincon de la Canada. and was
turned over to the late Gov. Stanley,
| formerly of South Carolina, as fee
! 70" his services in a lawsuit In 1866
Mir. We!ch bought from Gov. Stanley
3G5 acres. containing 100 trees more
than II feet in diameter the largest
called The Cathedral''-being 30 feet
In diameter and l0G feet in circumrer
rnCe. This Is claimed to be the largest
tree In the world. The highest tree in
the Santa Cruz forest is called "thc
Giant" 1t towers BOG feet toward the
Sky ai:a was Is feet taller few years
! ago. when its tip was broken off by
storm. More than 60 trees in the
grove are over 800 feet high. One of
them was recently cut down and 10000
"splil shake" (which are large shin
gles--were cut from 1t and sold for $l1
4 thousand on the cars; $50 railway
ties were cut from the limbs which
sold for 80 cents each. Thus the pro-
| cecGs brought total of 1927, which is
probably a record price for one tree.
NO more of the giants will be cut
| however.
Costly Skate.