Identifier: threewonderlands00murp (find matches)
Title: Three wonderlands of the American West; being the notes of a traveler, concerning the Yellowstone park, the Yosemite national park, and the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, with a chapter on other wonders of the great American West
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Murphy, Thos. D. (Thomas Dowler), 1866-1928
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston, L. C. Page & company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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ffers from the drivers wit inbeing assured that the stars can be plainlyseen through the hollow trunk. Why, I cantsee any, is the invariable exclamation of thecurious tourist who strains his eyes up the greatblack tube. O, you will have to come at night,of course, gleefully rejoins the driver, none theless enjoying a joke he has repeated daily.forperhaps a dozen years. The discoverer of the Mariposa Grove wasMr. Galen Clark, who at the time of our visitwas an old man in his ninety-sixth year, thoughhe was then still hale and strong. He made hishome among the great trees, which he loved asfriends and comrades, and was delighted to meetthe tourists who came to his cabin. He firstlearned of the trees in 1857 from the Indians,whose name for the now famous grove wasWahwonah. Since these lines were written theold pioneer has passed peacefully away, and hislast request was that he might be buried amongthe giant trees he loved so well. No fittermonument could be given him than one of these 86
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VKRM<)NI \\U W AW : I l( )S A (.ku\;-.Courtesy Southern Pacific Railway (■.AI.iloKMA THE YOSEMITE old friends of his, which bears the name of GalenClark and an inscription to his memory. There are many thousands of these trees indifferent parts of the coast country—John Muirthinks as many as six thousand above fifteenfeet in diameter. The name of the species,Sequoia, is that of a California Indian Chief,—more appropriate indeed than Wellingtonia,which a patriotic English explorer urged foradoption. There are two varieties, the SequoiaGigantea, usually found in the higher altitudes,and the Sequoia Sempervirens or Redwood,which are more frequent in the lowlands alongthe coast. These seldom grow to the huge sizeof the Gigantea—and furnish the redwoodlumber of commerce, which closely resemblescedar. The problem of felling these great trees isa difficult one—a fortunate thing, for thatmatter. It will be recalled that the section of aSequoia, perhaps thirty

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