Stanislaus County Short Sale Agent among some VERY Tall Trees Part 1

Stanislaus County Short Sale Agent among some VERY Tall Trees Part 1

This past Sunday (9/18/11) I made the trip up out of the valley to Calaveras Big Trees State Park. From the Central Valley of California it's an easy two hour drive up Highway 4 to the park. Of course we stopped along the way in Arnold Ca, one of our favorite little foothill towns in California.

The Calaveras Big Trees State Park is home to some very awe inspiring Giant Sequoias. Some of the trees in the park are believed to be over 2000 years old. These massive trees can reach a height of 325 feet and a diameter of 33 feet. It's hard to imagine how huge they are until you see them for yourself up close and personal.

A short history of the park begins in the spring of 1852 when Agustus Dowd was tracking a grizzly bear and came upon the forest of enormous trees. The first that caught his attention - known today as the Discovery Tree - was the largest in what is now the Calaveras North Grove. Of course most people thought that Dowd was exaggerating about the size of these trees until he led a group of men up to the grove.

The Discovery Tree was the first casualty in the rush to exploit the giant sequoias. It took 5 men 22 days to cut it down. Sections of the bark (up to two feet thick) and a portion of it's trunk were shipped to San Francisco to be placed on display. Later it was sent to New York city but the show was unsuccessful and closed. While waiting to be shipped to Paris a fire destroyed the exhibit.

The stump was planed smooth and used as a dance floor. Eventually a gazebo was built over the stump and it was even used as a school house. There was also a saloon and two lane bowling alley built on the giant trunk.

As you can see in the picture above there was no saw large enough to cut the tree down. They used long handled augers and wedges to cut it down. You can still see the marks on the trunk made by the augers. Even after the men had worked on it for over three weeks it still would not come down until a strong wind finally brought it down.

The Discovery Tree was the largest tree in the North Grove. It was over 25 feet in diameter at the base, and over 280 feet tall. When the rings were counted it was found to be only 1,244 years old , relatively young for such a large sequoia.

John Muir was so angered by these events that he wrote: "The vandals then danced upon the stump!" Part 2 of this blog will feature more of the massive trees in the park. I thought that the sad story of the Discovery Tree was worthy of it's own post.