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Article: Big birthday for a big tree. (Western Wanderings).(Calaveras Big Trees State Park, California)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Sunset
- Article date:
- May 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Sunset Publishing Corp. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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* ARNOLD, CALIFORNIA--When you reach the famous tree, you see a vast stump, planed smooth. "Here's where they had the dance floor," Bruce Thomsen says.
This is the Discovery Tree at Calaveras Big Trees State Park, in California's Sierra Nevada. A still-imposing if toppled specimen of Sequoiadendron giganteum, the giant redwood was "discovered" 150 years ago, and the world has never been the same.
The story goes like this. In the spring of 1852, one Augustus T. Dowd went hunting. The California Gold Rush was on; Dowd supplied game for men digging a ditch to bring water to nearby mines. Spotting a bear, he pursued it into the forest, but instead of ...