TALL TREES GREW HERE AWAY BACK - Redwood Forest Reached for Oakland Sky - Oakland Tribune 01 May 1952

1952 May 1 full clip of Redwood history1952 May 1 full clip of Redwood history Thu, May 1, 1952 – Page 118 · Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) · Newspapers.com

TALL TREES GREW HERE AWAY BACK

Redwood Forest Reached for Oakland Sky 

CUT TO REBUILD S.F.

It's hard to imagine the smoke of lumber mills shrouding the Oakland skyline and sweating oxen hauling gigantic redwood logs down Broadway but that's just what was happening in the year 1849, when most Californians were off to make a fortune in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
Lumber, not gold, lured the first settlers to Oakland. Three forests of gigantic trees led the hardy pioneers of early California to the east shore of San Francisco Bay as early as 1840. That towering timber, forgotten now but for a few scattered stands of second growth and the rotting remains of an old mill, formed the basis for more than one fortune and the establishment of the city of Oakland.

THEY BUILT CITY

The big redwoods were directly responsible for Oakland's first streets. They furnished the wood for its first house and attracted the men who were later to become the leaders of the state and the community. But by 1860 the towering groves were only a sea of stumps.

The last remains of Oakland's redwood groves still can be seen from Mountain Boulevard, where second growth has sprung up around the site of the Eastbay's first steam mill on Palo Seco Creek, and in Redwood Regional Park, where there are the rotting remains of another sawmill that supplied lumber for buildings "from Martinez to Alvarado.”

Jose de Canizarez, Spanish explorer and cartographer recognized the groves in 1776 and clearly indicated their position on maps he made at that time as "bosques de buenas maderas," or forest of good wood.

LUMBERMAN'S HAVOC

Dr. William P. Gibbons, San Francisco physician and student of natural sciences, explored the redwoods in 1855 and wrote: "But for the sad havoc wrought there 40 years ago by lumbermen and wood choppers these Oakland hills might still have presented one of the noblest natural parks conceivable."




Dr. Gibbons, who apparently visited the cut-over forests in the vicinity of Mountain Boulevard, describes stumps of from 12 to 20 feet in diameter. The most remarkable specimen in this group, the doctor said, was the united stumps of three trees which had grown together to give the appearance of one enormous tree whose trunk presented a body of solid wood 57 feet in diameter.

The San Francisco physician also mentions another grove a half-mile to the southwest "on the brow of a hill which overlooks the Golden Gate" and where, at the time of his visit there were many living trees! "At this point," Dr. Gibbons relates, "partly concealed by a dense growth of ambitious saplings, are to be found the relics of a redwood tree that once must have been among the most remarkable and gigantic individuals of its species; now forgotten and despoiled of its glory, showing nothing but a shell of wood and bark as a memorial of its past."

Entering the hollow of this forest monolith, "one finds himself within an area circumscribed by a wall of solid wood, the greatest diameter of which is 32 feet at a distance of four feet from the ground; this measurement not including the bark, which would raise the diameter to 33 and a half feet," wrote Dr. Gibbons.

"One particular portion of this redwood tract under discussion lies just below and to the westward of the highest point of the Oakland Hills. It occupies a small depression in the hill somewhat resembling a moraine, about two acres in extent. In this small area, on my first visit to the locality, which was in 1855, there were about a hundred and fifty stumps of redwood, the great majority of which were from twelve to twenty feet in diameter, the trees having been cut from one to eight feet above the surface of the ground."

"I have mentioned first this nearly extinct group of Alameda County redwoods, on account of this prodigious triple trunk which it contains. And now I shall make mention of another group which is located at a distance of a half mile to the southwestward from it, on the brow of a hill which overlooks the Golden Gate and its environs. Here we have many living trees, not only of redwood, but of other Coast Range arborescent and shrubby plants; such as Arbutus, Arctostaphylos, Vaccinium and others. At this point, partly concealed by a dense growth of ambitious saplings, are to be found the relics of a redwood tree that once must have been among the most remarkable and gigantic individuals of its species; now forgotten and despoiled of its glory, showing nothing but a shell of wood and bark as a memorial of its past. Entering the hollow, one finds himself within an area circumscribed by a wall of solid wood, the greatest diameter of which is thirty-two feet at a distance of four feet from the ground; this measurement not including the bark, which would raise the diameter to thirty three and a half feet. Four other cross measurements give a clean average of thirty feet excluding the bark, or thirty one and a half with it."

Erythea: A Journal of Botany, West American and General. (1893). United States: University of California.

BRITON'S DESCRIPTION

What the pioneer naturalist undoubtedly saw was, the remains of one of the "two trees south of Palos Colorados, a wood of pines situated on top of the hill over San Antonio, too conspicuous to be overlooked," as described by Capt. F. W.Beechey of the Royal Navy in 1826. The British sea captain, and other navigators of San Francisco Bay, used those huge trees as landmarks upon entering the harbor in order to miss treacherous Blossom Rock. "An idea of their size is gained in the realization that these two trees were "conspicuous" from the Golden Gate, 16 miles away.

Other than a casual mention in histories of the Bay area, the Oakland redwoods have been ignored by most writers. Most extensive study of the groves was made by Sherwood D. Burgess, Alameda High School teacher and published by theCalifornia Historical Society Quarterly in March of last year.

LENGTHY RESEARCH

Burgess, an Army captain is now in charge of the ROTC unit at Alameda High School, spent more than a year preparing the article and did extensive research, delving into old real estate records, county documents, and early California history.

Known originally the San Antonio Redwoods, the big Sequoia Sempervirens grew in the only groves outside the Coast Range proper. There were three distinct stands within an area of about five miles square. One grove was on the western slope of the hills above Oakland and inherited the nomenclature of “San Antonio redwoods.” The "middle redwoods” were in Redwood Canyon of Redwood Regional Park and a third stand was in the vicinity of Lake Chabot in the upper San Leandro Canyon and came to be known as the “Moraga redwoods."

VALUE RECOGNIZED

The forests were recognized for their value by the padres of the California missions who maintained that "the cutting of wood comprehended in the place asked for must remain in common" when they granted permission for the formation of the Peralta grant. Although not used in connection with the establishment of the Presidio of San Francisco or its mission, timbers for Mission San Jose probably constituted the first logging operation in the Oakland hills.

The first record that foreigners were active in the groves occurred in 1840, according to Captain Burgess, when an Irishman by the name of George Patterson deserted the English barque Columbia in San Francisco harbor and worked with John Parker, another deserter, bucking planks which they sold to John Sutter. Two years later Patterson was joined by Harry J. Bee, another sailor who jumped ship in 1830 and had experience in the Santa Cruz forests.

HALTED IN 1842

A sawmill operated by Nathan Spear and Capt. William S. Hinckley was turning out shingles and planks in 1841 but after Sutter established mills in the Sierra and the Santa Cruz operations expanded, Oakland's lumbering stopped about 1842.

Napoleon Bonapart Smith, Henry Clay Smith, his brother and a friend, William Mendenhall, were among the first Americans to cut the forests of San Antonio. They arrived in the timber in 1845 and a few months later were driven from the groves by a party of Spaniards. After participating in the Bear Flag revolt, the two Smith brothers joined with Elam Brown of Santa Clara in a lumbering operation, shipping their hand cut planks to San Francisco in 1847. In the woods at the same time were Jacob Harlan and Richard Swift, who cut 15,000 shingles from a single tree and sold them in San Francisco at $5 a 100.
 
How much lumber the San Antonio groves produced for San Francisco during this period is not known, but it was sold at about $30 per 1000 board feet, along with that coming from the Santa Cruz and Bodega mills. Operations fell off during 1848 but in 1849 Harry Meiggs, "a man of tremendous energy, physically a perfect athlete, good-natured and gentlemanly," cleaned up $500,000 in the Eastbay groves.

According to Samuel G. Upham's "Notes of a Voyage to California," Meiggs arrived in San Francisco in July 1849 and sold a shipload of lumber for a $50,000 profit. After working in a San Francisco lumber yard studying the local situation," Meiggs sent an army of 500 men into "the forests of Contra Costa County, felled the choicest trees in the then densely-wooded region, hauled them in saw-logs to the shore of the bay of San Francisco, built them into huge rafts, floated them to a wharf which he had constructed, converted them into lumber by the agency of a steam saw which he had erected and made $500,000 in gold by the operation." 


It was this sawmill, supposedly the first in what is now Oakland, that helped reduce the stands of redwood trees here. The mill was built on Palo Seco Creek, near Dimond, by an unidentified Frenchman in 1849 and was the first steam mill here. It was operated by Volney D. Moody, one of Oakland's early officials. Mrs. Chelton Hill of Piedmont, a granddaughter of Moody, says that timbers from this mill constructed the first frame house in Oakland, that of Moses Chase. Moody also sold great quantities of lumber to residents of San Francisco to rebuild homes and stores after fire destroyed portions of that city several times. Volney Moody, according to Mrs. Hill, delivered his lumber to Larue's landing at the foot of 14th Avenue. One day, she says, when her grandfather was taking a load to the waterfront he met a Spaniard who offered to trade a piece of land for the lumber. Moody accepted. This land was in a densely wooded oak forest located at what became part of Lafayette Square. Once when Moody was asked where his newly acquired land was, according to his grand-daughter, he replied, "My land is at Oakland" and it may have been this remark that gave the city its name. Below is pictured Moses Chase, first white settler in what is now Oakland, and his house built from lumber sawed in the mill of Volney Moody.


FLED FROM CREDITORS

Meiggs, a leader in California business, municipal politics and social life, went bankrupt in 1854 and in October of that year, loaded his family and remaining cash on a clipper ship and sailed off for South America, his creditors none the wiser.

During 1849 logs were being taken from the western slopes of the hills on roads winding down Dimond Canyon following a route along Park Boulevard and Thirteenth Avenue. Timber was also being cut in the Moraga woods and shipped across Suisun Bay to Benicia. Teams which carried the redwood to Martinez traveled a route now traversed by the Jonah Hill road to Lafayette, which became a resting point for the teamsters, whose rigs lined its streets and who "spent their hard-earned money with reckless profusion" in the local pubs.

Oakland's first steam mill, which grew into the present day General Mills, Inc., provided the boards for Oakland's first house and helped establish a bank. Interest from that original investment is still being paid Mrs. Chelton Hill of Piedmont, granddaughter of Volney Moody, who operated the mill for about a year.

Forerunner of others to be built in Redwood Canyon, the Moody lumber operation was in the San Antonio redwoods along Palo Seco Creek a short distance above Dimond Canyon. The mill was built by a Frenchman in 1849, sold to Meiggs and later acquired by Moody. With four oxen which helped bring Moody and his brother Charles across the plains to California, lumber was hauled down what is now Fourteenth Avenue to the San Antonio embarcadero. Moody was 17 years old at the time. Lumber from that mill built the first house in Oakland on East Tenth Street for Moses Chase.

WENT EAST TO WED

With $500 earned in the operation of the mill with his brother, Moody went East where he married. He and his bride returned to the West Coast and brought with them a small grist mill, which he set up in San Jose and later sold to the Central Milling Company. The business later became the Sperry Flour Company and finally General Mills, Inc. Moody became president of the First National Bank of Oakland and lived in Piedmont for many years. He later established his home in Berkeley at Le Roy and Le Conte Avenues, where he died in 1901 at the age of 72.

Moody's mill continued to produce until about 1854, when the timber in the area was depleted. At that time another mill was operated in the San Leandro area near Pinehurst Station by William Taylor and in 1852 Thomas and William Prince established a mill in the western end of Redwood Canyon, the remains of which are still to be seen. Three other mills operated in the general area until about 1856, when the timberland was exhausted, 

OTHER MILLS BUILT

Soon after the Prince mill was built Joseph Witherall and Nathaniel Lampson erected another just to the north of the Prince property and it was finally acquired by Henry Spicer. Near the mouth of Redwood Canyon, Chester Tupper and Richard Hamilton helped themselves to 350 acres of public land and set up a steam operation, which burned in the summer of 1854. Then Thomas Eager and Erasmus Brown erected a $10,000 mill between the Prince and Tupper sites and by 1860 the area was reduced to stumps.

In 1852 Hiram Thorn and William Hamilton constructed a $20,000 mill near Taylor's operation in the Moraga redwoods. There were from 300 to 400 men in the forests at that time and the mills were the economic center of the Eastbay. Nearly all the east to west roads were planned in relation to them.

BECAME BOULEVARD

A road down the western slopes became Park Boulevard and Thirteenth Avenue. Another route climbed the ridge between Moraga and the middle redwoods and wound down into the middle of the redwoods at exactly the site of Prince's mill. It then followed the canyon to the skyline, running a short distance south near the present Chelton Road to the head of Dimond Canyon, where Park and Mountain Boulevards meet.

Another thoroughfare led from Thorn's mill to Castro Valley and still another followed present-day Broadway, Broadway Terrace and Mountain Boulevard to the Prince road. Tupper and Hamilton, seeking a shorter route to the embarcadero, built a road across the ridge which today is Redwood Road and 35th Avenue. Thorn constructed a toll road from his mills to Oakland in 1854, traces of which still can be seen at the eastern end of Sobrante Road above Montclair.

The big redwoods are forgotten and gone today. Only the small but beautiful groves of second growth remains to remind of a few short years when the mighty Sequoia Gigantea reigned over the life of Metropolitan Oakland.

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