Page 64 - SOM FALL 2017 BOOK

neck of the woods | history

lumbering in the Northern
California counties of Del Norte
Sand Humboldt sits the Redwood
National and State Park. The park
encompasses the tallest trees in the
world, 37 miles of pristine coastline, a can-
yon filled with ferns, three large herds of
Roosevelt Elk, and the last undammed river
in California. However, this landscape would
have been lost if not for the actions of a few
conservationists at the turn of the last century.

In the 1850’s there were over two mil-
lion acres of old growth redwood forest in
California, but due to extensive logging that
number dwindled to a few hundred thousand
by the late 1910’s. This prompted a group
of citizens to form a conservation organiza-
tion named Save-the-Redwood League. The
League began purchasing large tracts of forest
in hopes of saving them for future generations.
The state of California matched the League’s
fundraising and was able to set aside over
one hundred-thousand acres. By the 1920’s,
the state had created three new state parks
with land purchased in conjunction with the
League. The parks were places visitors could
come view the tallest trees in the world and
the forest ecosystem that surrounds them.

Logging continued, and by the 1960’s around
90 percent of the forest had been lost. With
new and intensifying pressure from groups
like the Sierra Club, the National Geographic
Society and the Save-the-Redwood League,
Congress finally gave in and approved a new
national park. On October 2, 1968, President
Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law an act
establishing the Redwood National Park. The
new park added over 58,000 acres to the
already protected state parks. Then in March
of 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a law
that added 48,000 acres to the park. The last
park expansion was the Mill Creek acquisi-
tion in 2003. This added an additional 25,000
acres to the park. Today the park is a World
Heritage site, a protection that is guarded by
international treaties and the United Nations,
not just the U.S. government.

Getting there is as easy as cruising the 101
on the California Coast. If you want to delve
deeper, you can take any one of many spectac-
ular side roads. Stout Grove, on the northern
end, allows you to drive through 200-foot tall
trees on a two track road and see the Smith

62 www.southernoregonmagazine.com | fall 2017