Transcription:
DESCRIPTION OF THE MAMMOTH AND SOUTH PARK GROVES. THE MAMMOTH GROVE. The Mammoth Grove is situated in a small valley,
near the head waters of the San Antonio, one of the largest streams in Central Calaveras, California, and five miles east
of the Falls of said stream, which are one hundred and fifty feet in height, and surrounded by the grandest of scenery.
ACCOMMODATIONS AT THE GROVE. The Hotel can accommodate one hundred guests. It has a laundry, hot and cold baths, a billiard
table, bar, verandahs, parlor, ball-room, the most pleasant sleeping apartments, and furnishes the best of fare at the table.
It faces the Grove, having the greater number of trees to the left, looking from the verandah, and the two Sentinels immediately
in the front, about two hundred yards to the eastward. The valley in which this Grove is situated contains of the sequoia
trees, ninety-three, not including those of from one to ten years' growth. There are also hundreds of sugar and pitch pines
of astonishing proportions, ranging to the height of two hundred and seventy-five feet, and having not unfrequently a diameter
of ten to eleven and a half feet. Anywhere else these pines would be regarded as vegetable monsters. Here, by the side of
the sequoia, they look like dwarfs. During the Summer and Spring months this valley is exempt from the heat of the lower country
and from the cold of the snow range. Vegetation blooms early in May, remaining fresh and green until the middle of October.
The water is always pure and cold, and the Hotel furnished with ice throughout the Summer and Autumn. Snow falls usually about
the middle of December, and disappears from the Grove entirely by the middle of April. There is good hunting ground in the
vicinity--- mountain quail are abundant near by, and on the Stanislaus, three miles distant, grouse and deer abound. The numerous
streams in the vicinity of the hotel, are well stocked with trout. Delightful horseback or buggy rides conduct the visitor
to many interesting points of scenery, or objects of curiosity, among which, besides the Falls of San Antonio, may be mentioned
the Basaltic Cliff, on the North Fork of the Stanislaus River, and the Cave at Cave City, fifteen miles to the west. NOTABLE
TREES AND GROUPS. The Grove contains ten trees each thirty feet in diameter, and over seventy that are between fifteen and
thirty feet. Hittell, in his Resources of California, says: One of the trees, which is down---'The Father of the Forest'---must
have been four hundred and fifty feet high and forty feet in diameter. In 1853, one of the largest trees, ninety-two feet
in circumference and over three hundred feet high, was cut down. Five men worked twenty-five days in felling it, using large
augers. The stump of this tree has been smoothed off and now easily accommodates thirty-two dancers. Theatrical performances
have been held upon it, and in 1858 a newspaper--- The Big Tree Bulletin ---was printed there. Near the stump lies a section
of the trunk; this is twenty-five feet in diameter and twenty feet long; beyond lies the immense trunk as it fell, measuring
three hundred and two feet from the base to its extremity. Upon this was situated a bar-room and ten pin alley, stretching
along its upper surface for a distance of eighty-one feet, affording ample space for two alley-beds side by side. About eighty
feet from this stump stand the Two Sentinels, each over three hundred feet high, and the larger twenty-three feet in diameter.
The carriage road approaching the hotel passes directly between the Two Sentinels. South of the ''Sentinels, and to the right
of the road as you approach them, on the hillside, stands a tree over fourteen feet in diameter, which has been named Old
Dowd, in honor of the discoverer of the Grove, which discovery was made in 1852. Starting from the Hotel for the walk that
visitors generally take, entering the Grove by the left-hand pathway, after walking one hundred and twenty yards, we come
to the first cluster of Sequoias. They are on our left, close at hand, and were named, respectively, in 1865, U. S. Grant,
W. T. Sherman, and J. B. McPherson, after three leading Generals in the Union Army. To the right and southward thirty yards
from these is a group of three unnamed trees. Sixty yards east from Grant and Sherman is the Pride of the Forest, originally
named The Eagle. It is twenty-three feet in diameter and three hundred feet high, and altogether one of the healthiest and
noblest trees of the forest. Near by stands Phil Sheridan, a stout, graceful tree, three hundred feet high; and near this
lies the Miner's Cabin,'' which was blown down by a terrific gale, November, 1860. It is three hundred and nineteen feet long,
and twenty-one and a half feet in diameter. Seventy yards east of the Miner's Cabin brings us to the Three Graces, a group
of three trees, close together in a straight line, regarded by many as the most beautiful cluster in the Grove. Fifteen yards
north of the Three Graces stands Andrew Johnson so named early in the summer of 1865. Making this tree a central point of
observation, to the west twenty paces is Florence Nightingale, originally Nightingale, to which the word Florence was added
in 1865, by an admiring nephew of the philanthropic English lady whose name the tree now bears. Thirty paces eastward (of
A. J.) is the Bay State, and forty yards north W. O. Bryant, so named in 1865, by a lady admirer of that distinguished American
poet. To the left of Bryant twenty feet is Win. H. Seward. After passing Seward, is the Pioneer's Cabin (so named from the
cabin-like chamber and chimney its hollow trunk exhibits), one of the largest of the trees. To the west of this, forty yards,
are two beautiful sequoias, say seventy-five years old, of beautiful and vigorous growth, two feet in diameter, and one hundred
and forty feet high. South of the Pioneer's Cabin, seventy yards, in the centre of the Grove, is a tree two hundred and eighty
feet high, seventeen feet in diameter, singularly hollowed out on one side by fire, and named Pluto's Chimney. The Chimney
made by the fire is on the north side, and extends from the ground ninety feet upward. A hundred feet north of the Pioneer's
Cabin stands the Quartette cluster, the highest of which is two hundred and twenty feet; and fifty yards east of this is a
healthy young tree thirteen feet in diameter, two hundred and eighty feet high, named in 1865 by a San Francisco lady, America.
It has been well named. Eighty yards east of the Pioneer's Cabin, the one on the right, the other on the left of the path,
are California and Broderick, so named in 1865. Originally they were called Ada and Mary. The next tree is Henry Ward Beecher,
two hundred and eighty feet high and fourteen feet in diameter. A few steps further brings us to the Fallen Monarch, the
base section of a huge trunk, which has to all appearance been down for centuries. It is still eighteen feet in diameter,
though all the bark and much of the wood have been wasted away by time. What is left is perfectly sound; but the upper half
or two-thirds, which struck the earth with greatest force in its fall, has all disappeared, and trees nearly a century old
are growing where it struck. This tree must have been over three hundred feet high and twenty-five feet in diameter. Fifty
paces east of this is the Hermit, now named Abraham Lincoln. It is eighteen feet in diameter and three hundred and twenty
feet high---sound from root to top. One hundred yards north of this is a tree which has been named Elihu Burritt. The next
tree, twenty paces to the right of the path, is Uncle Sam. Near it stands Alta (Upper) California, and fifteen steps north
of this is Union. Next, and right on the trail, comes General Wadsworth, named in honor of the noble soldier who was slain
in Grant's campaign against Richmond. This cluster contains twelve trees, in size of the second class --- averaging fifteen
feet in diameter and two hundred and sixty feet in height. The Mother of the Forest ends the northward course of our walk,
and here the path turns toward the Hotel. This tree has been stripped of her bark for one hundred and sixteen feet upwards
from the ground. It is of course dead, and the top limbs are beginning to fall. The Mother is three hundred and twenty-seven
feet high, and, without the bark, seventy-eight feet in circumference. North of the Mother, and outside of the enclosure,
are The Twins and a nameless tree sixteen feet in diameter and three hundred feet high. Fifty yards on the trail after it
turns southward, is General Sutter, which, dividing thirty feet from the ground, forms two distinct trees, each two hundred
and eighty feet high. Salem Witch, Longfellow, Prof. Asa Gray and Dr. John Torrey (the two last named in honor of distinguished
American botanists) are next, all close together, and are all fine trees. Fifty feet to the west of these stand The Trinity,
three trees growing from one trunk. The circumference below the point of divergence is sixty feet. One hundred feet from
Longfellow brings us amidst the family group. Standing near the uprooted base of The Father of the Forest, the scene is grand
and beautiful beyond description: The Father long since bowed his head in the dust yet how stupendous even in his ruin He
measures one hundred and twelve feet in circumference at the base, and can be traced three hundred feet, where the trunk was
broken by falling against another tree; it here measures sixteen feet in diameter, and according to the average taper of the
other trees, this venerable giant must have been four hundred and fifty feet in height when standing. A hollow chamber or
burnt cavity extends through the trunk two hundred feet, large enough for a person to ride through; near its base, a never-failing
spring of water is found. Walking upon the trunk and looking from its uprooted base, the mind can scarce conceive its prodigious
dimensions, while on the other hand tower his giant sons and daughters, forming the most impressive scene in the forest.
Ninety yards east of this and the same distance from the road, is a cluster of three trees named Starr King, Richard Cobden
and John Bright. Starr King is the highest standing tree in the group---three hundred and sixty-six feet. Daniel O'Con-nell,
Edward Everett and Fred L. Gould stand next south of this trio. They are young trees --- say eight hundred years old --- and
quite vigorous. Midway of the trunk of the Father are James King of William and Keystone State. Sir John Franklin and Dr.
Kane are close north of the Father. They were so named in 1862 by Lady Franklin. Near Dr. Kane is the Century named in 1865,
in honor of the notable Century Club, of New York, of which the poet Bryant was President. Ten feet from The Keystone, close
together, stand John and Joseph LeConte. J. M. Wooster, formerly Hercules, stretches his huge body across the path next.
This was the largest tree standing in the Grove until 1862, when during a heavy storm it fell. It is three hundred and twenty-five
feet long and ninety-seven in circumference. When standing, it leaned about sixty feet from perpendicular. A few paces north
of the roots of J. M. Wooster are the Sequoia Queen and her Maids of Honor ---one on each side of the Queen. Sir Joseph Hooker,
John Lindley (English Botanists) and Humboldt stand together on the hill near the shattered top of J. M. Wooster. Near these
are two young sequoias, say sixty years old. The Mother and Son are directly on our path to the right approaching the hotel.
South of these, twenty yards, is an ancient fallen trunk, very large, and near to the east, on the hillside, is an unnamed
tree three hundred feet high, sixteen feet in diameter. Thirty yards north illegible . The Mother and Son is General Scott,
three hundred and twenty-five feet high. The Old Maid, sixty feet in circumference, which fell toward her friend, the Old
Bachelor, January, 1865, lies along the hill all broken to pieces. The Old Bachelor still lives. Near this, on the hillside,
stands Kentucky. The Siamese Twins, Daniel Webster and Granite State are in a cluster right on the trail. They are first-class
trees in size, with an average diameter of twenty feet and three hundred and five feet in height. The Old Republican, Henry
Clay, Andrew Jackson and Vermont next greet us. They are of the second-class. Then come the Empire State and Old Dominion,
first-class. The former is ninety-four feet in circumference. We next reach George Washington. Uncle Tom's Cabin, a tree of
the second-class, stands between George Washington and the Empire State. Emerging into the open space near the carriage road,
we reach The Beauty of the Forest, The Two Sentinels and Old Dowd. These are of the first and second class. One of the Sentinels
measures three hundred and fifteen feet in height. In this part of the Grove close observation will detect a number of young
trees-say from ten to three hundred years-and from forty to two hundred feet high. They are all growing finely, and promise-barring
accidents of wind and fire-to be well brought up, middle-aged trees of their kind in about one thousand years. Admission
to the Grove, 25c.