The Last Giants: How the World's Largest Trees Became the Prey of Gold Miners.
Lumberjacks pose with a red sequoia in the background, 1901. A. V. Erickson / Humboldt State University Special Collections.
Tourists pass a tunnel in the trunk of a red sequoia. Photo: Peter I. Palmquist / Humboldt State University Special Collections.
Giant sequoias, which appeared on Earth millions of years earlier than humans, by the beginning of the 20th century were on the verge of complete extinction.
Red sequoia is the tallest tree in the world. The length of its trunk can exceed 110 meters (for comparison: the Cheops pyramid is 138), the diameter is 7 meters. The oldest plants are 2 thousand years old. Due to the humid climate, the Pacific coast of the United States, from California to Oregon, has become the natural habitat for sequoias. It is believed that these trees have existed here for the past 20 million years, and appeared on Earth at least 160 million years ago. Today, the tallest sequoia in the world is Hyperion (115.61 meters), whose growth was stopped by a woodpecker, which damaged the trunk at the top.
Promotional video:
Postcard "A man and a woman in the middle of a redwood forest." Photo: Tim McKay / Humboldt State University Special Collections.
The development of the region coincided with the period of the gold rush and the influx of miners to California. Having lost the hope of getting rich on gold mining, many settlers switched to forestry. At the time, experienced lumberjacks were making up to $ 125 a month (about $ 3,000 today).
At the end of the 19th century, trees were cut down not only to earn money: the Mark Twain sequoia, about 10 meters in diameter, was cut down in 1891 to send the cuts to the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the British Museum in London. They are exhibited there today.
In less than a hundred years, 96% of the trees were cut down.
In 1850, the area of the relict sequoia forest in California was 8,100 square kilometers (comparable to the area of Cyprus). In less than a hundred years, 96% of the trees were cut down. Today, the red sequoia grows here on a strip about 750 kilometers long. Slightly less than half of the remaining forest is Redwood National Park and State Park.
On the verge of extinction, the sequoia has become a tourist attraction. Those wishing to see giant trees today can walk along one of the routes in Redwood Park and merge with nature, spending the night in a room inside a 42-ton log.
Sequoia "Mark Twain", the diameter of which exceeded 10 meters. Photo: Peter I. Palmquist / Humboldt State University Special Collections.
1906 year. Photo: Peter I. Palmquist / Humboldt State University Special Collections.
Photo: A. V. Gilfillan / Humboldt State University Special Collections.
Loading 16 logs onto a train, 1885. Photo: Peter I. Palmquist / Humboldt State University Special Collections.
1893 year. Photo: Peter I. Palmquist / Humboldt State University Special Collections.
Photo: Peter I. Palmquist / Humboldt State University Special Collections.
Photo: Ray Jerome Baker / Humboldt State University Special Collections.
A house arranged in the trunk of a living red sequoia. Photo: Tim McKay / Humboldt State University Special Collections.
Postcard with the image of a hotel located in a log weighing 42 tons and age 2,100 years, 1975. Photo: Norman Bob / Humboldt State University Special Collections.
President Hoover walks the Avenue of the Giants trail with friends before his inauguration. Photo: Tim McKay / Humboldt State University Special Collections.
The picture was taken in 1892 in the American National Park "Sequoia". A fallen tree is an evergreen sequoia.
Cutting down sequoia.
And finally, a short video: