One hundred and thirty-seven years ago, well before the Calaveras North Grove was purchased by the California State Park System and renamed the Calaveras Big Trees State Park, the land’s owners carved an enormous hole in the base of one of its sequoia trees. “The storm was just too much for it,” the Calaveras Big Trees Association wrote on Facebook along with images of the fallen giant taken by park volunteer Jim Allday: His wife, park volunteer Joan Allday, told SFGate that the tree was in bad shape before the storm hit. The Tunnel Tree is reported to have fallen on Sunday at 2 p.m. Jim Allday, a volunteer in the area, was busy working on Sunday afternoon when he noticed that the trail leading to the Pioneer Cabin Tree had been washed out and that was when he spotted the tree lying on the ground. The great tree with its 32-foot diameter was already a popular photo stop even before the tunnel was carved into it, as 19th-century images show: Transcendental Graphics via Getty Images According to the American Park Network’s OhRanger.com website, the tree was hollowed out in the 1880s to compete with a similar tree in Yosemite National Park, which had become a popular tourist destination. The North Grove’s owners carved out the Pioneer Cabin tree in response to the 1881 carving of that tree.
A California storm in the Calaveras Big Trees State Park fells the 1,000-year-old American tree, the Pioneer Cabin Tree.