POSTCARDS FROM THE TREES

 

Big Basin Redwoods State Park was not too far from where my family lived when I was growing up.  I remember going there a few times when I was young.  

The campfire bowl

I remember feeding deer here.  They were very tame and liked lettuce.  I don’t suppose that’s allowed anymore.

The swimming pool

Yours truly floating in the Big Basin pool in 1942.

Muir Woods was another spot fairly close to home where the family went now and again.

Picnic time in Muir Woods.  L-R, my Grandma B (for Bradley), me, my Dad, and Mom in 1942.  My Aunt Frances (Dad’s sister) was with us so she must have been the one taking the picture.

The little creek running through Muir Woods.

My Dad holding me while I reached for something in the creek.

Twenty years later my youngest sister and brother are hamming it up ‘on stage’ at the campfire circle in Muir Woods in 1962.  A beautiful spot.  Weddings are often held here.

Wow – this is an ‘oldie’.  Look at that car.  Looks like a ’56 Ford ‘hardtop’?

The “Cabin Tree” so named because lightning strikes and fire over the years had hollowed out much of the tree’s interior leaving it with small compartments akin to rooms in a cabin.  In 1880, the owner of the then existing Mammoth Grove Hotel asked the owner of the property the tree sat on if he could have a tunnel cut through the tree so people could drive their wagons and carriages through it on their way to the hotel, and it was done.

This was the tree’s interior prior to the tunnel being cut.  The hole in the back was called the cabin’s ‘back door’.  The tree was estimated to have been over a 1000 years old.  It finally fell during a heavy rainstorm and flooding in January of 2017 – its shallow root system no longer able to support it.

The Mammoth Grove Hotel in 1874 – the year my Great Grandfather Smedley was there.  He had lunch here with the owner of the hotel, but did not stay here.  The Hotel was built in 1861 and burned down in 1943.

Members of my family posing in the tunnel cut through the Cabin Tree.  Sometime prior to 1857 the tree’s top fell reducing the tree to a height of 150 feet.  It’s not known how tall the tree may have been originally.  Oh, and by the way, no one drives through the tree anymore - not for a long time.

People used to be able to walk through some of the downed trees and it was a fun thing back then to poke their heads out through holes in the bark.  I haven’t been to the park for several years and don’t know if folks are still allowed to walk into some of the reclining trunks but I have a hunch not, as there are elevated wooden walkways throughout most of the grove of big trees and folks nowadays are advised to stay on the walkways.  A good thing to preserve the lives of the trees still standing.  They have very shallow root systems and people treading over them could eventually cause the trees to fall.

The stump of the “Discovery Tree” which measured over 25 feet in diameter, 280 feet tall, and, when cut down, discovered to have been 1,200 years old.  One wonders if it would still be standing today had it not been cut down – something that wouldn’t be allowed to happen today!  It was discovered in 1852 by a man tracking a grizzly bear, and cut down in 1853!  To add insult to injury, for a while a cotillion was built over the stump, and a bowling alley over the fallen part of the tree!

A sketch of the original giant Sequoia in its entirety prior to being cut down.

I wonder if these were some of the fellows responsible for cutting the magnificent tree down.  If so – for shame!  It took 5 men 22 days to cut it down.  The bark was carefully cut away, a support system was put together over which the bark could be laid so the ‘tree’ could be taken around the world for “show & tell”. L 

:->

La Nightingail