Mother of the Forest

The Mother of the Forest (668 BC – AD 1852) was an ancient and huge Sequoiadendron tree. The tree lived in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in eastern central California, United States.^[1] The dead tree's remains are within the Calaveras Grove of Big Trees State Park, in Calaveras County, California.

History and death

Stretching 321 feet into the air with a girth of 90 feet at ground level, the tree was the largest of 92 Giant Sequoias growing in the valley in 1852 when George Gale discovered the massive tree. In 1854 he had the bark stripped from the trunk.^[1] Gale had named the massive tree "the Mother of the Forest" before he sent men to strip the tree of its bark. Once the bark was removed, the tree could not survive for long. And in 1908, a fire that swept through the area burned away much of what was left of the tree.

The massive tree had thick bark, two feet thick in some spots, which Gale had stripped. Gale toured with the bark, showing it off to urban crowds. The crowd's reaction was twofold; some of the people believed the bark to be a fraud, reasoning that no tree could grow bark as thick and long as that which Gale possessed. Others felt outrage that someone would destroy such an old tree.

Present day

To this day, what is left of Mother of the Forest stands as a large fire-blackened snag along the loop trail through the North Grove, at the far end of the loop. Saw marks made when the bark was cut away are still visible on the trunk, which stands over 100 feet tall. Gale sent samples of the tree to foresters in the east where it was discovered to be 2,520 years old.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• List of sequoia groves
• List of California state parks

References

1. ^ ^{a b} USFS (1900). Report on the Big Trees of California. Original from the University of Michigan: Govt. Print. Off.. pp. Page 13. http://books.google.com/books?id=XAs2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=%22Mother+of+the+Forest%22&source=web&ots=4XZkJiMAAa&sig=Ibzx0z1Dp6XX9zkhYFqgupv35uA&hl=en. 

• Hutchings, J.M. In the Heart of the Sierras: The Yo Semite Valley, Both Historical and Descriptive and Scenes by the Way : Big Tree Groves : the High Sierra, with Its Magnificent Scenery, Ancient and Modern Glaciers, and Other Objects of Interest. Yo Semite Valley [etc.]: Old Cabin [etc.], 1886.

• Palmquist, Peter E., and Thomas R. Kailbourn. Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, 1840-1865. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2000.

External links

• A stereoview of Mother of the Forest