The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-01-11

times licking hungrily, but with little
effect, at the thick, asbestos-like bark;
again, where a litter of boughs and
fallen logs was piled up against Big
Tree, the fire burned fiercely enough
to penetrate the outer cover and into
the heart. That is why the great black
caverns in the living sequoias are al
most always found on the upper side
of those standing on a slope.
Careful inspection of a Big Tree,
even one with an unbroken front of
new bark, usually shows unmistakable
shows traces of many fires. Often an
arrow-shaped scar runs from the base
a hundred feet or more toward the
crown. Such blemishes, covered by
new bark, were caused by fires long
before the discovery Of America. For
centuries the tree grew new bark, at
the rate of half an inch or less year,
until finally the wound was healed.
Tree torches burning in the Sierra
Nevada might have signalized every
event in recorded human history, from
the building of the Pyramids to our
own Civil war.
White Men Slow to Find Them.
No doubt the Coast Redwoods were
seen by the first Europeans to visit our
Pacific coast. Yet for more than two
centuries after the visit of Sir Francis
Drake, in 1879, white men roamed up
and down California apparently with
out climbing far enough up the high
Sierras to find the Big Trees.
The Indians knew them, Of course.
In summer they camped among them
and left potholes in granite rocks
where they ground acorn meal.
Even now the identity Of the first
white men to gaze on the Big Trees
of the Sierras is in doubt. 1t may have
been some member of the Joseph r.
Walker expedition of 1888. One Zenas
Leonard, clerk of the Walker party,
recorded:
~In the last two days travelling we
have found some trees of the Red
wood species incredibly large, some Of
Is fathoms COG to 1Os feet) around the
trunk at the height of large mans
head from the ground"
That group of Big Trees, now known
as the Calaveras North Grove, was,
however, the first of these sequoias to
become well known.
In the spring of 1852 A. T. Dowd,
miner of Murphy's Camp, in the his
toric Mother Lode district, followed
wounded bear into the sequoias. He
came running back to his companions
and excitedly dragged them with him
to see 1.-The largest bear in California"
What he showed them was a Big Tree
probably the one which afterward
was felled and a dance hall built on
top of it.
John Bidwell, member of the first
immigrant party to enter California by
the overland route, stated that he saw
the Calaveras Big Trees in 1871; but
Dowd is popularity given credit as the
discoverer of the Sequoia gigantea. 1t
was the Calaveras Grove which in
spired Bret Harte to write his poem,
son Cone of the Big Trees"
In 1857 Galen Clark discovered the
Mariposa, or Wawona, Grove in what
is now the Yosemite National park.
The following year Hale D. Tharp, a
pioneer of Three Rivers, in Tulare
county, was led up the Middle Fork of
the Kaweah river by Yokut Indians,
and on up the grassy slopes beneath
Moro Rock to the plateau where grows
the noblest forest of the Sequoia gi-
gantea, the Giant Forest, in what Is
now Sequoia National park.
Few explorers have left as perma-
nent a record of their discoveries as
that made by old Hale Tharp. On a
fallen, hollow sequoia log the bold and
well-formed characters, "H. D. Tharp,
1855" stand today almost as fresh as
when he carved them. A glass frame
now protects them from vandalism.
General Sherman" the Biggest.
Here, in SeQuoia National park,
stands that hoary veteran of all Big
Trees, the General Sherman" found
and named by James Wolverton in
1879. Many other trees, including Red
woods, Douglas frs, and the Australian
eucalyptus, are taller; but no other, so
far as one knows. has its bulk. Its
greatest base diameter Is 36.5 feet and
it's trunk contains 600,120 board feet
Of lumber.
You can imagine its size when told
that a train of 80 railway cars would
be required to haul its trunk alone.
One limb, 100 feet above the ground,
is nearly seven feet thick. Sawed into
boards, the tree would build about 40
five-room housesl
To save some Of these trees, the
Seauoia National park was created in
1890, and for years patroled each sum-
mer by United States cavalry.
Private individuals, however, still
owned the finest parts Of the sequoia
forests and had, Of course, a perfect
right to cut them down for lumber. To
avoid this, the late Stephen T. Mather,
as director Of the National Park serv-
ice, asked congress for funds with
which to buy and save more of the
Big Trees. An appropriation was made,
but 1t was insufficient.
Then aid was asked Of the National
Geographic society. Immediately. from
its own funds and with voluntary con-
tributions from individual members, It
subscribed sufficient money to pur-
chase the lands and Big Trees desired.
In all. the society bought and gave
to the United States a total Of 1910
acres at q cost Of s96,330.