Calaveras Big Trees State Park

Shortly after their discovery by Europeans, giant sequoias were subject to many exhibitions

The giant sequoia was well known to Native American tribes living in its area. Native American names for the species include Wawona, toos-pung-ish and hea-mi-within, the latter two in the language of the Tule River Tribe.

The first reference to the giant sequoias of Calaveras Big Trees by Europeans is in 1833, in the diary of the explorer J. K. Leonard; the reference does not mention any specific locality, but his route would have taken him through the Calaveras Grove.[2] This discovery was not publicized. The next European to see the trees was John M. Wooster, who carved his initials in the bark of the 'Hercules' tree in the Calaveras Grove in 1850; again, this received no publicity. Much more publicity was given to Augustus T. Dowd at the North Grove in 1852, and this is commonly cited as the discovery of both the grove and the species as a whole.[2]

The "Discovery Tree" was noted by Augustus T. Dowd in 1852 and felled in 1853, leaving a giant stump and a section of trunk showing the holes made by the augers used to fell it.[3] It measured 25 ft (7.6 m) in diameter at its base and was determined by ring count to be 1,244 years old when felled. A section of the trunk was toured with little fanfare while the stump was later turned into a dance floor. John Muir wrote an essay titled "The Vandals Then Danced Upon the Stump!" to criticize the felling of the tree.[4]

Discovery Tree - Largest known Giant Sequoia but it was cut down. Notice an adult person in above picture standing on its platform trunk

In 1854, a second tree named the "Mother of the Forest" was stripped of its bark in 1854, to be reassembled at exhibitions. This mortally wounded the tree, since outer layer of protective bark was removed. The tree didn't survive long after, having shed its entire canopy by 1861.[5] In 1908, with the tree unprotected by its fire resistant bark, a fire swept through the area and burned away much of what was left of the tree,[6] leaving a fire-blackened snag.

Mother of the Forest

John Muir for Mother of the Forest

The forest is also home to what remains of the "Father of the Forest", an ancient and exceedingly enormous giant sequoia which fell centuries ago, and its remains are still present in the park. Reportedly, the tree was 435ft high with a 110ft circumference- a "giant of giants".[7]

In early 1880s,[8][9] a tunnel was cut through the compartments by a private land owner at the request of James Sperry, founder of the Murphys Hotel, so that tourists could pass through it.[10][11][12][13][14] The tree was chosen in part because of the large forest fire scar. The Pioneer Cabin Tree, as it was soon called, emulated the tunnel carved into Yosemite's Wawona Tree, and was intended to compete with it for tourists.[15][16][17]

Along with the 1850s exhibitions, the destruction of the big trees was met with public outcry.[18] In 1864, on introducing the bill that would become the Yosemite Grant, senator John Conness opined that even after people had seen the physical evidence of the Discovery Tree and the Mother of the Forest, they still did not believe the trees were genuine, and that the areas they were from should be protected.[19] This did not guarantee any legal protection for the trees of Calaveras Grove.

By the turn of the century the land was owned by several lumber companies, with plans to cut the remaining trees down, as sequoia and giant sequoia with their thick trunks were seen as great sources of lumber at the time.[20] This again caused a chorus of public outcry by locals and conservationists, and the area continued to be treated as a tourist attraction. Parcels of land that would later become the state park and nearby national park were optioned by lumberman Robert P. Whiteside in January 1900, with the intention of logging. A protracted battle to preserve the trees was launched by Laura Lyon White and the California Club. Legislation in 1900 and 1909 authorized the federal government to purchase the property, but Whiteside refused to sell the land at the offered price, preferring its higher valuation as parkland. It was not until 1931 that Whiteside's family began to divest the property, beginning with the North Grove.[21]

The Yosemite protection was gradually extended to most sequoias,[22] and Calaveras Grove was joined to California State Parks in 1931.[23][24] According to John Muir the forest protected by the park is: "A flowering glade in the very heart of the woods, forming a fine center for the student, and a delicious resting place for the weary."[25]

Save-the-Redwood and Calaveras-Grove-Association bought the parcels of land to make Calaveras Big Tree State Park

Over the years other parcels of mixed conifer forests, including the much larger South Calaveras Grove of Giant Sequoias (purchased in 1954 for US$2.8 million, equivalent to US $30.5 million in 2022 dollars), have been added to the park to bring the total area to over 6,400 acres (2,600 ha). The North Grove contains about 100 mature giant sequoias; the South Grove, about 1,000.[3] The state park now encompasses 6,498 acres (2,630 ha) in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties.[26][3]

The importance of fire to giant sequoias cannot be overstated. Other than the change of seasons, fire is the most recurrent and critical process in determining the life history of this species. Tree ring records from giant sequoias show that frequent surface fires were the typical pattern of fire occurrence over the past 2,000 years. But this pattern changed after about 1860, when fire frequency declined sharply. This decline in regional fire was probably a result of decrease in fires set by Native Americans, followed by fire suppression by government agencies.[27]

The state provided $7 million in 2022 from the Wildfire and Forest Resiliency Program to spend over five years, “to make our forest resilient when a big fire comes through".[1] A prescribed burn was conducted by park crews on about 180 acres (73 ha) of the North Grove in late October through early November.[28]