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Random Facts about Mariposa and Calaveras Trees
THE BIG TREES OF CALIFORNIA
There are several groves of Big Trees in California, the
most famous of which are the Calaveras grove and the
Mariposa grove. The Calaveras grove occupies what may be
described as a band or belt 3,200 feet long and 700 in
width. It is between two slopes, in a depression in the
mountains, and has a stream winding through it, which runs
dry in the summer time. In this grove the Big Trees number
ninety-three, besides a great many smaller ones, which would
be considered very large if it were not for the presence of
these monarchs of the forest. Several of the Big Trees have
fallen since the grove was discovered, one has been cut
down, and one had the bark stripped from it to the height
116 feet from the ground. The highest now standing is the
"Keystone State," 325 feet high and 45 feet in
circumference; and the largest and finest is the "Empire
State." There are four trees over 300 feet in height, and 40
to 61 feet in circumference. The tree which was cut down
occupied five men twenty-two days, which would be at the
rate of one man 110 days, or nearly four months' work, not
counting Sundays. Pump augers were used for boring through
the giant. After the trunk was severed from the stump it
required five men with immense wedges for three days to
topple it over. The bark was eighteen inches thick. The tree
would have yielded more than 1,000 cords of four-foot wood
and 100 cords of bark, or more than 1,100 cords in all. On
the stump of the tree was built a house, thirty feet in
diameter, which the Rev. A.H. Tevis, an observant traveler,
says contains room enough in square feet, if it were the
right shape, for a parlor 12x10 feet, a dining-room 10x12, a
kitchen 10x12, two bed-rooms 10 feet square each, a pantry
4x8, two clothes-presses 1-1/2 feet deep and 4 feet wide,
and still have a little to spare! The Mariposa grove is part
of a grant made by Congress to be set apart for public use,
resort and recreation forever. The area of the grant is two
miles square and comprises two distinct groves about half a
mile apart. The upper grove contains 365 trees, of which 154
are over fifteen feet in diameter, besides a great number of
smaller ones. The average height of the Mariposa trees is
less than that of the Calaveras, the highest Mariposa tree
being 272 feet; but the average size of the Mariposa is
greater than that of Calaveras. The "Grizzly Giant," in the
lower grove, is 94 feet in circumference and 31 feet in
diameter; it has been decreased by burning. Indeed, the
forests at times present a somewhat unattractive appearance,
as, in the past, the Indians, to help them in their hunting,
burned off the chaparral and rubbish, and thus disfigured
many of these splendid trees by burning off nearly all the
bark. The first branch of the "Grizzly Giant" is nearly two
hundred feet from the ground and is six feet in diameter.
The remains of a tree, now prostrate, indicate that it had
reached a diameter of about forty feet and a height of 400
feet; the trunk is hollow and will admit of the passage of
three horsemen riding abreast. There are about 125 trees of
over forty feet in circumference. Besides these two main
groves there are the Tolumne grove, with thirty big trees;
the Fresno grove, with over eight hundred spread over an
area of two and a half miles long and one to two broad; and
the Stanislaus grove, the Calaveras group, with from 700 to
800. There should be named in this connection the petrified
forest near Calitoga, which contains portions of nearly one
hundred distinct trees of great size, scattered over a tract
of three or four miles in extent: the largest of this forest
is eleven feet in diameter at the base and sixty feet long.
It is conjectured that these prostrate giants were
silicified by the eruption of the neighboring Mount St.
Helena, which discharged hot alkaline waters containing
silica in solution. This petrified forest is considered one
of the great natural wonders of California.
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