Columbia Daily Tribune: “The largest remaining stand of sequoias in the world is found in Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park in California, which I visited in September. It is so impressive that people have felt a strong urge to note the individuality of the giant trees by giving them names.
At one time, most of them had signs displaying their names were nailed to them, a practice now forbidden. Still, the need to recognize the trees’ special qualities is so strong that signs have been placed in front of the most unusual trees, which have been given official names.
Some of the giants are recognized for what they can do. The 270-foot Shelter Tree, now called the Haverford Tree, has a 30-square-foot cavity at its base, which can shelter as many as 15 horses during storms. I could stand inside the hollow Telescope Tree and look up at the sky.
Although the heartwood has been burned out, the tree is still alive and growing.
Even many of the fallen trees, which decay very slowly, are given names: the Fallen Monarch, the Elephant’s Foot, the Fallen Massachusetts Tree. The most famous is the Fallen Wawona Tree, or the Tunnel Tree. People came from all over the world to see the tree with the tunnel you could drive through. Cut in 1881, the tunnel was 26 feet long, 8 feet wide and 10 feet high. The tree lived until 1969.”
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