Discovery Tree

In the 1850s, during the California gold rush, stories were told of a grove of trees in the Sierra Nevada that were larger than the tallest buildings on earth. This attracted Augustus T. Dowd who in 1852, while working as a hunter for a construction crew building canals to transport water to a mining camp, shot a California grizzly bear and followed it into a forest where he discovered the giant sequoias in the Sierra Nevada. Though Dowd's discovery was initially believed as the first discovery of the big trees, historical evidence refutes his claim.{{Cite book |last=Fry |first=Walter |title=Big Trees |last2=White |first2=John R. |date=1930 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Palo Alto, California |pages=8–9}}

File:Workmen-Felling-the-First-Mammoth-Tree-1853.jpg in 1853.]]

In the 1850s, when travel to California's big trees was difficult and only possible by horse-and-wagon on primitive mountain trails, the idea of exploiting them for profit began to gain traction. One man, Mr. Lewis, a member of the discovery party that found the big trees, had the idea of removing the bark from one of the trees and transporting it to the East Coast for exhibition.{{Cite news |last= |date=March 1859 |title=The Mammoth Trees of California |url=https://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/hutchings_california_magazine/33.pdf |access-date=January 22, 2023 |work=Hutchings' California Magazine |page=2 |volume=3 |issue=9 |quote=Mr. Lewis, one of the party above alluded to, after seehing these gigantic forest patriarchs, conceived the idea of removing the bark from one of the trees and taking it to the Atlantic cities for exhibition, and invited Dowd to join him in the enterprise.}} In 1853, an article in the Daily Alta California noted that a section of bark had been taken off and packed for display at the Crystal Palace in New York.{{Cite book |last=Kruska |first=Dennis G. |title=Sierra Nevada Big Trees: History of the Exhibitions, 1850–1903 |date=1985 |publisher=Dawson's Book Shop |location=Los Angeles, California}}{{rp|18}} However, Captain Hanford, a local resident, had his own scheme to fell the "Discovery Tree" for public exhibition. He bought the tree from his friend Lapham and proceeded to cut it down by drilling away at the trunk with two-inch pump augers and sawing at the spaces between the boreholes which took five men 22 days. The tree was over {{convert|25|ft|m}} in diameter, {{convert|280|ft|m}} tall, and 1,244 years old when felled.{{Cite web |title=California Big Trees State Park: The Discovery Stump |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=34120 |access-date=January 22, 2023 |website=HMdb.org: The Historical Marker Database}}

The tree was eventually felled, and the bark was crated up and taken to San Francisco where it was put on display on Bush Street, adjacent to a local fair.{{Cite web |last= |date=September 8, 1853 |title=The Mammoth Tree |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SRP18530908.2.13&srpos=9&e=------185-en--20--1--txt-txIN-mammoth+tree----1853---1 |access-date=January 22, 2023 |website=San Joaquin Republican |quote=The bark, although slightly warped by heat and other causes, still preserves much of its natural form, and is put together with great skill and care, as to give a perfect idea of the appearance of the tree, as it once stood, towering above its huge companions of the grove upon the mountain side in Calaveras. |volume=3 |number=84}} The bark was reassembled in its natural state, forming a spacious room, with a carpet, piano forte, and seats for forty persons. This attracted many visitors and was widely publicized in the San Francisco newspapers of the day.{{Cite web |last= |date=September 3, 1853 |title=Mammoth Tree |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DAC18530903.2.11&srpos=3&e=------185-en--20--1--txt-txIN-mammoth+tree----1853---1 |access-date=January 29, 2023 |website=Daily Alta California |quote=We went yesterday afternoon to see a section of the bark, 20 feet in height, of the Mammoth Redwood Tree, erected in its original position. This section was taken off eight feet above the ground, and is 80 feet in circumference [...] It is on exhibition on Bush, near Montgomery. |volume=4 |number=234}}

File:Mammoth-Tree-Handbill-1854.jpgIn 1854, Hanford, with financial support from miners Kimball and Cutting, set out to bring the giant sequoia tree from California to the eastern United States. He arrived in New York City amid controversy surrounding the Crystal Palace, a popular exhibition space that had recently closed following the World's Fair. Hanford intended to showcase the tree at the Palace, but when he and the Palace's new president, P. T. Barnum, could not agree on terms, Hanford instead rented a space at 596 Broadway.{{Cite web |last= |date=April 29, 1854 |title=The Big Tree from California |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/dlc_laceflower_ver01/data/sn83030313/00271743099/1854042901/0973.pdf |access-date=January 29, 2023 |website=The New York Herald |quote=The Big Tree from California -- ready for exhibition on the 8th of May. This immense tree recently felled upon the Sierra Nevada, California, has at length arrived in the city of New York, where it is placed for public exhibition in the spacious Racket Court, adjoining the Metropolitan Hotel, Broadway.}} However, just days before Hanford's exhibit was set to open, Barnum announced that he too would be displaying a giant California sequoia tree at the Crystal Palace. Hanford's exhibit opened one week later and was ultimately not as successful as Barnum's, due in part to the confusion caused by the competing exhibits.{{rp|20–25}}

After its display in San Francisco and New York, the tree was destroyed by fire before it could reach Paris for exhibition.{{cite web |last=Chamings |first=Andrew |title=The tragedy of California's oldest tourist attraction |url=https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/the-tragedy-california-s-oldest-tourist-19553377.php |website=SF Gate |date=July 10, 2024 |access-date=October 31, 2024}}

The felling of the tree was met with criticism.{{Cite web |last=Hickman |first=Leo |date=June 27, 2013 |title=How a giant tree's death sparked the conservation movement 160 years ago |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2013/jun/27/giant-tree-death-conservation-movement |access-date=January 22, 2023 |website=The Guardian}} Naturalist John Muir exclaimed, "Then the vandals danced upon the stump!"{{Cite web |last=Zhang |first=Sarah |date=January 10, 2017 |title=Drive-Through Redwoods Are Monuments to Violent Deforestation |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2013/jun/27/giant-tree-death-conservation-movement |access-date=January 22, 2023 |website=The Atlantic |publisher=The Atlantic}} In 1864, the Discovery Tree was used as a symbol of the need for preservation and played a key role in the introduction of the Yosemite Grant to Congress. The Calaveras land was owned by logging interests, with public protests stopping the cutting of the trees.

In 1931, the land was purchased by the State of California. The stump and remaining log of the Discovery Tree became a popular tourist attraction. Since its discovery in 1852, Calaveras Big Trees has remained one of the state's longest-running tourist destinations. The stump was used as a dance floor, a bar, and a two-lane bowling alley. Visitors view the size of the tree and the other towering sequoias that make up the Calaveras Big Trees.

The Discovery Tree was the first giant sequoia to be felled by a basal cut, allowing botanists to accurately estimate the tree's age by counting its rings. The initial reading revealed 1,120 rings, indicating that the tree was younger than originally thought, but that it grew at a steady pace throughout its life.{{cite book |last=Farmer |first=Jared |title=Trees in Paradise: The Botanical Conquest of California |publisher=Heyday |year=2013 |page=44}}

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{{reflist}}

• Kruska, Dennis G. (1985). Sierra Nevada Big Trees: History of the Exhibitions, 1850-1903: Los Angeles, California: Dawson's Book Shop.
• Lowe, Gary D. (2004). The Big Tree Exhibits of 1870-1871 and the Roots of the Giant Sequoia Preservation Movement. Livermore, California: Lowebros Publishing.

• Stanford Libraries - [https://library.stanford.edu/blogs/special-collections-unbound/2020/01/highlights-gary-d-and-myrna-r-lowe-collection-big-tree Highlights from the Gary D. and Myrna R. Lowe collection on the Big Tree of California]

Category:Sequoia (genus)

Category:Trees

Category:Individual giant sequoia trees

Category:1850s individual tree deaths

Category:History of the Sierra Nevada (United States)

Category:History of Calaveras County, California

Category:California Gold Rush