Saving the Giants

When we talk about Saving the Giants, we don’t mean a desperate attempt to salvage a pennant for the San Francisco baseball team. But we are talking about something that has its origin in the city by the bay.

On April 17, 1906, the world came to an end for San Francisco. The ground shook and shook and shook. An exhibit in a museum in Ferndale, California, has a record of the quake as it was recorded in Japan. The seismograph’s pen literally went off the page! Even after the ground quit moving, the destruction was not at an end. Smoke curled up from broken cook stoves and before long, an inferno ate its way through the lavishly decorated halls of the Palace Hotel with the same fervor that it destroyed the dwellings of the housekeepers who worked there. When the horror was over, nearly all of San Francisco east of Van Ness Avenue to the bay front lay in ruins.

Two hundred miles or so north of San Francisco, men had discovered a treasure trove of lumber in immense trees called redwoods for the color of their heartwood. The discovery preceded the earthquake and fire in San Francisco by at least a generation. But loggers had a real problem with the redwoods. They were so big that cutting them down and getting them to a sawmill was almost impossible with 19th century technology. At the dawn of the 20th century, however, gasoline engines and improved steam engines made logging redwoods more feasible. The timing was perfect. A large American city lay devastated, desperate to be rebuilt. In the redwoods were the raw materials for its rebirth.

Saving Old Growth
During the second decade of the 20th century, America’s attention was primarily on Europe, where a war of unparalleled dimension had erupted. It seemed only a matter of time before the United States would be drawn in. Fortunately, certain farsighted individuals realized a different conflict was also in its final stages. Old growth redwood trees, some of which had lived over 2,000 years and towered 360 to 380 feet in the air, were being harvested with the same thoroughness as reaping a wheat field. If actions weren’t taken immediately, there would be no more giant old growth redwoods.

Fortunately for you and me, some of the people who were concerned had both wealth and influence. They set out to save areas of uncut redwood forests before the magnificent old growth trees were lost forever. Among them were men such as John D. Rockefeller, Sr. whom we had always thought of as a parsimonious and greedy man. Obviously we were wrong. When Rockefeller walked through a grove and learned it was unprotected, he used his own money to buy it. Today, people count the Rockefeller grove as one of the most majestic of the remaining old growth redwood stands.

A “Save the Redwoods League” was formed in 1917 to make other purchases. Today, those areas are strung along U.S. Highway 101 like pearls on a string, forming Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The groves that you pass are named for the men and women who were willing to use their wealth to save the redwoods we enjoy today.

Avenue of the Giants
At Humboldt Redwoods State Park, you can see redwoods growing as they did before saw and axe decimated their numbers. A standout area is the Avenue of the Giants, where for 31 miles you can drive through a wonderland of trees that tower so far above that you’ll suffer from “redwood neck” trying to see the tops of them. Some of the groves are second growth, but even they have a grandeur that defies description. Even though California as a state is cash-starved, a visit to Humboldt Redwoods is free. You can spend all the time you want marveling at the giants and not spend a dime! How wonderful.

The Avenue of the Giants can be approached from either the Jordan Creek exit on the north or the Phillipsville exit on the south from Highway 101. There are also several intermediate access points. Avenue of the Giants is actually a section of old Highway 101.

Along the Avenue of the Giants, you will find signed groves with trails that wander off through the redwoods, giving you a chance to experience something rare: a world not dominated by man-made structures. There is a sense of solitude and grandeur at each stop. For me, there is also a sense of awe. Many people stop at Founders Grove and the trail there is busy. The Founders Tree honoring the men and women who saved the redwoods is not the largest redwood tree, but it is a giant at 346 feet in height. The Giant Tree in Rockefeller Grove towers over 360 feet.

Life After Death
Along the loop path at Founders Grove, you will see the Dyerville Giant, which crashed to the ground on March 24, 1991. Before it fell, it was thought to be at least 362 feet tall, and was estimated to have been over 1,600 years old. When it fell, no one was there to observe, but one woman who heard it wondered if there had been a train crash on the nearby rails of the Northwestern Pacific.

The Dyerville Giant is instructive for another reason. Although its fall is less than 20 years ago, you can already see how the remains nourish a number of new plants. Indeed, a large burl that once stood 100 feet above the ground may in time nurture new redwood trees. In old growth redwood groves like this, downed trees like the Dyerville Giant will last as much as 400 to 500 years before decaying completely. In doing so, they will give life to countless new trees and bushes.

Redwoods are long-lived because they have few enemies. The natural tannin in their bark keeps them from appealing to insects. Their thick bark makes older trees nearly oblivious to forest fires. Even the periodic rampages of the Eel River provide silt that nurtures the trees.

They are shallow rooted, however. Their roots only grow down a few feet into the soil but spread laterally one hundred feet or more. The trees literally live in three climate zones. At the base, they are in a moist, dark environment, while at the top, they have to contend with an arid wind-whipped atmosphere. When redwoods succumb, it is often because of high winds. As they topple, they may bring down other trees, and thus create a spot in the forest where younger trees and plants can finally gain enough sunlight to thrive.

Redwood Museum
The park visitor’s center between Myers Flat and Weott should be a mandatory stop. The adjacent museum is extremely well done. One of the exhibits is an incredible early version of a recreational vehicle made out of a redwood log and mounted on a Nash Quad truck chassis. If you think you have suspension and ride problems or lack of power in your RV, imagine wrestling this brute over the highways and byways of the early 20th century! Other exhibits include the three remaining types of redwoods growing side by side. Sequoias are larger in bulk but not as tall. They are found from Yosemite north through Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Dawn Redwoods were discovered within the last century and are native to China. The coast redwood belt extends along a narrow band that hugs the coast from Santa Cruz, California, to Brookings, Oregon. Its range is defined by the coastal fog belt, which provides necessary moisture during the dry summers.

The adjacent Burlington Campground is open all year. You’d have difficulty parking your 40-footer here, but smaller RVs fit just fine. No hookups. Other campgrounds, and some day-use facilities, are seasonal, opening around May 15 and closing in late fall, depending on the weather.

Several small communities are strung along the Avenue of the Giants. In them, you will find restaurants, occasional RV parks, fuel and some interesting historical tidbits. As you pass through Weott, there is a pole with arrows pointing up, up, up to a crossbar 35 feet in the air. The crossbar marks the high water mark from the horrific 1964 Eel River flood. In Myers Flat, the Myers Inn was built in 1915 on a site the local Indians claimed had never been flooded. It survived floods in 1955 and 1964.

If you have time, a worthwhile side trip is out the Mattole Road to Rockefeller Forest. This is a narrow road that twists around giant trees, and is not a great place for a large RV. At Rockefeller Forest, a short path that crosses Bull Creek leads to the Giant Tree, which may be the biggest redwood still standing.

A former governor of California and President of the United States once said, “If you’ve seen one tree; you’ve seen them all.” I believe that even he felt differently about the magnificent old-growth redwoods. Redwoods are still harvested today. Their natural immunity to bugs makes their lumber ideal for many construction purposes. Logging companies routinely replant after cutting, and within one hundred years, cutover areas can be harvested again. But there is a vast difference between the majesty of the old growth groves and areas where redwoods are part of the economy. As you walk through old growth groves, you are constantly skirting giant trees that may have fallen as much as 500 years ago, and are still providing nutrients and life to the forest floor. There is a totally different ambiance about these groves, where you cannot even see the tops of the trees surrounding you. Many people, we among them, would say it is a spiritual experience. Whatever it is, it is unique. If you haven’t put the redwoods on your must- see travel itinerary, you should do so now. You won’t regret it.n

Gerald C. and Sharon L. Hammon are writers who live in Silver City, New Mexico