New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1916-07-14

east of the Rockies, It is
scarcely known. Yellowstone
and Yosemite are the only
,wo names which the enormous ma
'ority of fasteners think of when ma.
ional parks are mentioned. Never
,heless. Sequoia is, perhaps, in point
If average beauty, the superior OF all.
1t was dear to the heart Of John
Muir, father of National parks, and
Chief Geographer r. B. Marshall,
who knows them all as no other man
Knows them, having surveyed or ira
sersed them in person, has declared
m print that it possesses beauty as
great as all others combined.
1t is par excellence the camping-out
park, as some day will be discovered.
Perhaps the most potent reason for
Its lack OF celebrity is that this is the
Big Tree park, and the general public
associates the Big Trees of California
with Yosemite. The Mariposa grove,
within easy reach of the Yosemite
valley, contains several enormous Sc
quota trees. In fact the Yosemite Ma
tiOnal park contains three groves of
these giants, the two others being the
MERGED and TuOlumne groves, which
lie within easy reach tO the north
west.
The Sequoia National park, how
ever, which lies many miles south of
Yosemite, was created to preserve,
for the use and pleasure of the people
Of the United States, by far the great
est groves Of the oldest, the biggest,
md the most remarkable trees living
in this world. They number 1,1G6, 900.
or these, 10000 exceed 10 feet in
diameter. The General Sherman tree,
most celebrated of all, is 279.9 feet
high with a diameter of 36.5 feet. The
Abraham Lincoln tree is 270 Get high
with a diameter of 81 feet. The Will
liam Mckinley tree is POI feet high
with a diameter of 20 feet.
Of Mighty Dimensions.
The General Grant National park is
usually mentioned with Sequoia be-
cause, though separated by six miles
of mountain and forest, the two are
practically the same national park. 1t
contains only 1856 acres and Vas
created only for the protection of the
General Grant tree, a monster Sc
quota 26i feet high and So feet in
diameter. But General Grant shares
his domain with distinguished neigh
bOrs, notably the George Washington
tree. which is only nine feet less in
and six feet less in diameter.
The scquoias are the Oldest living
in this world. They are the
link" writes Ellsworth
Huntington, between the ancient
East and the modern West.
Three thousand fence posts, suffi-
to support a wire fence around
s 1000 or 5000 acres, have been made
from n of these giants, and that
was only the first'step toward using
its huge carcass. Six hundred and
fifty thousand shingles, enough to
cover the roofs If 70 or so houses,
formed the second item of its prod
uct. Finally there still remained
hundreds of cords of firewood which
no one could use because of the pro-
hibitive expense of hauling the wood
of the mountains. The upper third
Of the trunk and all the branches lie
on the ground where they fell, not
rotting, for the wood is won
enduring, but simply waiting
till some foolish camper shall light a |
devastating fire.
Huge as the sequoias are, their
size is scarcely SO wonderful as their
age. A tree that has lived 500 years
still In its eafiy youth; one that
has rounded out 1000 summers and
is only in full maturity; and
Oid age, the three score years and ten
Of the %sequoias, does not come for IL
Dr. is centuries.
Growing Before Exodus.
How old the oldest trees may be
not yet certain, but | nave counted
The rings OF 79 that were over 1000
years OF age, of three that were over
1900, ana OF enc that was $3.50.
In the days OF the Trojan war and
of the exodus OF the Hebrews from
this Oldest tree was a sturdy |
with stiff, prickly foliage like
Oh a cedar, but far more COM
pressed. 1t was doubtless a grace
Sharply conical tree, 20 or 80 feet
nigh, with dense, horizontal branches,