Originally set aside in 1890 as General Grant National Park in order to protect a large sequoia grove from logging interests, the park remained relatively unknown for the next 40 years due to its rugged landscape which made it inaccessible to much of the public. In fact, Kings Canyon remains somewhat unknown today, which makes is a must see.
explore kings canyon
early california
Following the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, Mexico ceded a large block of the southwest to the United States. With the discovery of gold less than a year later, it seemed the U.S. had hit the lottery. California quickly achieved statehood in 1850, and droves of settlers headed west to cash in. Everything was for sale.
Newly formed railways brought the masses into what would one day become America’s most populous state. These same railroads were also transporting extracted goods from resource-rich areas, such as the mountains of the Sierra, where abundant strands of timber stood, defenseless against the saw.
lumber for miles
The Sequoia tree was far from the best wood for lumber as it split apart too easily compared with its cousin the Coastal Redwood. Nevertheless, the trees were under attack, as there was simply a massive amount of board feet of usable lumber in each tree, and the growing population of the American West in the second half of the 19th century required lumber.
The massive trees soon became a spectacle and some were cut down simply to ship large pieces back east and to Europe to be shown in museums and at expositions during a time when tall tales of the western US were being spun to no end by land speculators and promoters.
In 1875, a San Fransisco entrepreneurial promoter named Martin Vivian felled a massive tree, whose modern-day remnant is now the well-known “Centennial Stump” in Grant’s Grove, in Kings Canyon. His purpose for cutting the tree was simply to ship a section of it back east, to be displayed at the Missouri State Fair and later at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, to celebrate the nation’s 100th birthday.
flaws in the law
John Muir happened to be in the grove at the time and witnessed the felling of the great tree. Although he and others were critical of the action, there was nothing they could do to stop the action. Although the California state legislature had passed a law in 1874 forbidding the cutting of any tree over 16 feet in diameter in this area, the law had a loophole, and Vivian found it.
As the law was written, anyone who was convicted of the crime of cutting one of the trees was to be fined. Vivian had already been convicted of cutting trees, and was indeed fined, however, the flawed statute forbade the retrying of a person for the same crime. Thus, upon paying a fine for his crime, Vivian was essentially able to return to the forest and cut away…
Numerous logging interests began operations in the southern Sierra in the 1880s, and the ax and saw were quick to fall the massive trees. However, a move to protect the trees began to take shape, as the idea of preserving these forests was a simple matter-of-fact to some from early on.
john muir
John Muir was of course an active voice in the push for preservation, although at this point he was indeed a self-described “unknown nobody”. Born in Dunbar, Scotland, Muir had moved to Wisconsin with his family in 1849. His father was a strict Presbyterian minister and saw that young John learned Biblical scripture. By age 11, he was able to recite three-quarters of the Old Testament from memory, in addition to the entire New Testament.
After leaving his family farm, the energetic Muir studied botany and geology at the University of Wisconsin, and took a mundane factory job that worried him for a possible future of mediocrity. Upon recovery from a factory injury that left him temporarily blinded, Muir set out to live…
He headed first, on foot, to Florida where he became ill, likely suffering from Malaria. Somewhere along the way, he learned of a place in the western state of California that held a great valley, with massive surrounding mountains, great trees and rushing rivers. A place that was known as Yosemite…
anywhere that is wild
Thus Muir set sail for San Fransisco. Upon disembarking from the ship that gave him passage, he was asked where he would like to go. His response: “anywhere that is wild”.
He made his way directly to Yosemite and began to explore the Sierra Nevada mountains, soon finding his way to the southern end of the mountain range, and into what would one day become Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.
Despite his relative invisibility at that point, Muir was in love with the mountains of the Sierra. He led nature hikes into the forests and mountains, detailing with great specificity individual plants, trees and insects, and would speak passionately for hours to anyone who would listen about the importance of protecting these magnificent areas.
The young naturalist wandered for days on end through the mountains, talking to trees, plants and rocks and pioneered an early route up the east face of Mount Whitney, the tallest of all peaks in the lower 48 and a mountain that lies some 70 miles east of the Giant Forest at a time before the High Sierra Trail connected the areas.
To Muir, this was all simply part of his submission to a greater power, or as he saw it, an “unconditional surrender” to nature. His respect of the Sequoia tree was obvious.
“God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.”
As Muir and his associates ramped up efforts to preserve the great trees of the western Sierra, the stars were aligning to provide a great assistance to his call for action. Not only were conservationist groups in favor of setting aside large swaths of land in order to preserve the natural setting, but a surprising ally began to emerge from the industrial world.
railroads and national parks
Yellowstone had been named a national park in 1872, and the success of the tourism industry that was emerging in that area was no secret to the railroad industrialists of the day. As profits in that region became more obvious, other railroad companies became more than willing to assist in the promotion of newly-romanticized destinations. It was abundantly clear from the experience of the Northern Pacific Railroad, which served Yellowstone, that tourism in such remote areas produced large profits for a few powerful captains of industry.
The Southern Pacific Railroad was chartered in San Francisco in 1865, and originally connected San Francisco to San Diego. By the end of the 19th century, the company held lines that ran all the way to New Orleans and had arranged a lease with the Central Pacific Railroad, which provided track into Utah, as part of the First Transcontinental Railroad that was completed on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah. The company also soon owned substantial land holdings throughout the state of California, in an effort to lay track throughout the state.
Even by the most conservative estimation, the Southern Pacific Railroad had become a major source of national economic and political influence in the late 19th century. Numerous names that are connected to the railway company are associated with efforts to preserve the lands that now constitute Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.
The Southern Pacific Railroad had good reason to be in favor of the proposed national parks. Not only were there great profits to be made in the transportation of tourists into such remote areas, but there was also the issue of watershed protections.
The railroad barons fully understood the importance of a continual clean water supply for the irrigation efforts in the fertile farmlands below. After all, their trains transported these goods to lucrative markets in the coastal cities of California.
timber and stone act of 1878
As the decades of the late 19th century passed, the pioneer era of exploration in the southern Sierra was coming to an end. The treasures laid up in these mountains were fairly well known by this point, and the number one prize in the Kings River area was timber.
Early timber extraction operations essentially removed large amounts of trees from public lands, as the government held deed to all unsurveyed lands. Most of the lands in this area had yet to be surveyed and recorded, which legally prevented any form of legitimate private ownership.
in 1878, the Timber and Stone Act was passed in an effort to streamline the process of privatizing lands and to provide an affordable land owning opportunity to common citizens. In theory, this act would make land available 160 acres parcels of surveyed lands to homesteaders, ranchers and miners for cheap prices.
While this approach looked viable on paper, its real-world practicality remained dubious, as it ultimately placed large tracts of forests into corporate hands. Large lumber companies simply recruited individuals to purchase parcels of land, then bought the land from the new owners.
Soon, large companies such as the Kings River and Tule River Companies, along with the nearby Kaweah Colony, amassed tens of thousands of acres of ancient forests in the western Sierra. Logging efforts accelerated as land ownership became uniform.
george stewart
As the rush to extract lumber and mineral resources from the Sierra increased, an impassioned local voice appeared that argued for setting the trees aside in order to preserve the natural scenery and to protect the ancient life forms from complete destruction.
George W. Stewart was born in Placerville, California in the late 1850s, as the insanity of the gold rush began to subside. His observation of the disregard for natural resources during these years developed a strong sense of preservation in young Stewart. An early interest in journalism led to a position with the Visalia Delta, one of the area’s first printed news publications. In 1878, at the age of 21, Stewart obtained the position of city editor.
Stewart began writing about the destruction of the forests in the western Sierra and soon called for a state law that would prohibit the cutting of giant Sequoias. Nothing came of his suggestion, but the lines of a legal battle that would determine the future of these trees were being drawn and a number of prominent voices began to align with Stewart.
During a Senate campaign stop in 1880, General John F. Miller spoke with the editors of the Visalia Delta, and Stewart was adamant about acquiring protection for the western Sierra. Sensing that this was a matter of importance to a growing number of the area’s voters, Miller was receptive to the idea, and upon his election to the Senate, began to press for action.
He introduced Senate Bill 463, “a bill to provide for setting apart a certain tract of land in the State of California as a public park”. The bill received little attention in the Senate, however the ball was rolling and it was clear that the actors in this effort were not interested in state protection, but federal protection.
the story may never be told
a bonus national park?
The bill that created Sequoia National Park was signed by President Benjamin Harrison on September 25, 1890, thanks to a bill sponsored by House Representative for California’s 6th district, William Vandever.
Oddly, there was an expansion of the park, a mere week later. The bill to create Yosemite National Park was signed by Harrison on October 1st. The original Yosemite bill (H.R. 8350) was replaced by a substitute (H.R. 12187) that included provisions for the creation of General Grant National Park, as well as the expansion of Sequoia to include the acreage upon which the Kaweah Colony had filed their claims and had constructed their road.
those railroad boys…
A few theories attempt to explain this and some claim that these lands were included in the expansion to essentially kill the Kaweah Colony, as a few historians contend that their independent logging efforts would have proved costly to the Southern Pacific Railroad, which owned a number of its own lumber interests and was the leader in transportation of these materials in the San Joaquin Valley.
Rep. Vandever’s connections to SPR attorney, Daniel Zumwalt, whose namesake meadow is found at Road’s End in Kings Canyon, add to the theories surrounding the mysterious enlargement of Sequoia so soon after it was designated.
kings canyon is added
Although most were unaware of the treasures hidden within this area of California’s Sierra Mountains, industrial forces were indeed aware of the area. Valuable water flowed from the King’s River and industrialists made moves in the 1930s to construct damns in the canyon to provide water for thirsty developments to the west.
This led then-Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, who had fallen in love with King’s Canyon on an earlier trip to the area, to become involved on a personal level. He hired photographer Ansel Adams to make images of the majestic landscape in order to publicize the area. His efforts worked, and President Franklin Roosevelt signed the bill to create King’s Canyon National Park in 1940.
The protection of the area was still not complete however, as the new park’s Cedar Grove and Tehipite Valley were left unprotected as part of the deal. These areas would not be fully protected by park boundaries until 1965 as battles with industrial interests continued.
The park was now some 700 times larger than it was originally and the administrators struggled to manage the newly acquired land. Being wartime, resources at the federal level were already significantly strained, so the administrations of Sequoia and King’s Canyon were combined in 1943 and remain so as of 2017.
kings canyon today
Today, King’s Canyon is larger than Sequoia by some 50,000 acres, yet it receives less than half the visitors of its adjacent sister park. It is remote, and requires a bit more travel time to access. Nevertheless, given the number of visitors to Sequoia, it is somewhat surprising that King’s Canyon remains a largely undeveloped park.
But that was Ickes vision, and after a trip into this park’s rewarding backcountry, you’ll probably agree that old Harold Ickes had it figured out…
A completely natural setting for a natural park, who knew it would turn out so nice…
explore kings canyon
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