National Geographic : 1934 Aug
AMONG THE BIG TREES OF CALIFORNIA but no other, so far as I know, has its bulk. Its greatest base diameter is 36.5 feet and its trunk contains 600,120 board feet of lumber. You can imagine its size when told that a train of 30 railway cars would be required to haul its trunk alone. One limb, 130 feet above the ground, is nearly seven feet thick. Sawed into boards, the tree would build about forty 5-room houses! In New Zealand, kauri pines attain a diameter of 20 feet, and in Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico, a giant cypress, said to be 6,500 years old, measures 58 feet in diameter and 255 feet in height. The reputed age of the latter is, of course, a guess, and the diameter may include a number of stump sprouts around a dead tree, which have coalesced into a solid bole. So far as is reliably known, the Cali fornia Big Trees are the oldest and largest living things in the world; but there is an opportunity for some explorer and lover of trees to investigate the arboreal monarchs of the world, to see whether there are any legitimate disputants of "General Sher man's" title to the "oldest and largest living thing." When a tree is older than the Christian era, there is no need for exaggeration. Yet there has been much confusion about the ages of the Big Trees and the Coast Red woods. Guesses of 5,000 years and more have been made. The only way to determine the age of a tree is by counting the rings of annual growth. To get this count, one must either saw down a tree or take core borings. The oldest Big Tree found by Huntington was 3,150 years old, and he found only three over 3,000 years and 79 over 2,000 years. John Muir states that he counted the rings of one tree in the Converse Basin that showed an age of more than 4,000 years; but diligent search has failed to re discover that tree. Dr. A. E. Douglass, of the University of Arizona, a leading authority on the relation between weather cycles and tree rings,* took a boring of "General Sherman" in August, 1931. Results of his experiment indicate that the tree is between 3,500 and 4,000 years old. * See "Secret of the Southwest Solved by Talka tive Tree Rings," by Andrew Ellicott Douglass, in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE for Decem ber, 1929. Until white men came with ax, saw, and dynamite, the Big Trees' only enemies were ice and fire. Yet in a few short years of logging perhaps as many Big Trees as now remain in the Giant Forest were destroyed. In one area alone, the Converse Basin, mammoth sequoias by the score were felled and scarcely used. With the passing of their shade, moist, flowery meadows were also turned into dreary sand flats. Here stands what is called the "Chicago Stump," all that is left of a Big Tree felled in 1891, sections of which were shipped to Chicago for exhibition at the World's Fair. That tree was reported to have been 300 feet high and 26 feet in diameter where cut. A later estimate shows it may have been larger, even larger than the Sherman tree. Two men, using an extra-long saw made by brazing two 12-foot saws together, worked thirteen days to cut down the Chicago tree! SAVING THESE GLORIOUS TREES FOR MAN'S FUTURE ENJOYMENT To save some of these trees, the Sequoia National Park was created in 1890, and for years patrolled each summer 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 Service, asked Congress for funds with which to buy and save more of the Big Trees. An appropriation was made, but it was insufficient. Then aid was asked of the National Geographic Society. Immediately, from its own funds and with voluntary contribu tions from individual members, it subscribed sufficient to purchase the lands and Big Trees desired (see illustration, page 225). In all, The Society bought and gave to the United States a total of 1,916 acres at a cost of $96,330.* In early days of the park, when cavalry rode its trails, visitors were few-not more than 3,000 to 4,000 people a year. Now, with motor roads, hotels, and comfortable Government-owned camp grounds, this sea son may bring 150,000 visitors. Stand at the park entrance long enough * See, in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE, "Our Big Trees Saved," January, 1917, and "The National Geographic Society Completes Its Gifts of Big Trees," July, 1921.