Newspaper Article from Lizzie McGee

Transcription

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ORIGINAL

The Story Of The General Grant Tree And The Gamlin Cabin

BY LIZZIE GAMLIN McGEE
DUNLAP, CALIFORNIA

as told at the Naturalist Camp Fire program in the Park Sept. 1951, by the author.

Mr. Crippen and other park personnel, and all my good friends here tonight. I address you as friends because you have walked beneath the gigantic splendor of our huge Sequoia Trees. No doubt you already love their uplifting influence, and feel that God has been a bountiful giver when he created these everlasting trees. I feel this way about it, and that cements a beautiful friendship between us.

Tonight I want to tell you something about man’s early activities in this forest of Redwoods and the nearby woodlands. First: in 1870, just eighty-one years ago, this forest was not a park, and was not to be for another 20 years. The group of Big Trees were isolated, and few people knew of their existence. There were no roads up in this area. The few who explored hiked in. Some may have come on horseback.

Joe Hardin Thomas of Visalia, a saw mill man who built a mill down on Meadow Flat–the flat that is now covered by man-made Sequoia Lake–discovered these giant trees in 1862. Mrs. Lucretia Baker in 1867 named the largest one the General Grant who was in the zenith of his military career at the time.

In 1872 Israel Gamlin, who had arrived in Tulare County in 1867 first saw the trees while working at the Thomas sawmill. He took a Squatters claim under an existing law at that time. His claim took in the Grant grove of trees. This act would hold the claim, pending a United States survey in this area. After the survey should be made he would have a prior right to file a timber claim.

Israel’s brother, Thomas Gamlin, had come on from Vermont in 1869. He joined Israel and they set up housekeeping in the Fallen Monarch log. Their fire chimney extended upward through the burnt hole you will notice as you go under the log from the south side entrance. They cooked meals for the hungry who increasingly were coming and going as word of the Big Trees spread around. The Monarch was also put in use as a shelter for over night tourists, and so the Fallen Monarch became the first hotel to be within this area.

The brothers went to work hewing logs for the Gamlin cabin that sets just above the Grant Tree. When the cabin was finished they moved in, happy to have a home amidst a wonderland so peaceful and so quiet.

They built a corduroy road across the meadow, coming out at the southern end. This corduroy stretch of road was made by sinking logs into the marshy grass lands crosswise. This held a load from bogging down. Reaching the southern rim of the meadow they cut out a make shift road around or over the hill, passing somewhere in the vicinity of Sunset Camp grounds, then on past Stevens grade to Happy Gap, at the junction of present Highway 180 and the Sequoia Lake road. The Stevens grade is now used as a bridle path or a hiking trail. From Happy Gap the first vehicles to travel the roads with the Stoney Point road that led to Valley points. This first road into the Big Trees was not much to brag about, but it could be traveled by ox teams, hooked to low wheeled home constructed wagons. The wheels were cut from a three or four foot in diameter log, then rimmed with an iron band tire. Lacking the iron tire the cut could be used without the band for some time. There were plenty more cuts when one wore out. With this kind of an outfit shakes and posts, which were made from down timber were hauled to markets in the valley.

James Pursell, an early Mussel Slough pioneer (Hanford) took a claim on land around where Big Stump Checking Station now is. He had a large family. They visited back and forth with the Gamlin brothers. The first romance flourished when Thomas Gamlin courted Turenne Pursell in the glorious surroundings of the wonderful trees. After, both the Pursells and the Gamlins moved out to the valley for the winter, to their respective places, Mussel Slough and Kingston. Thomas and Turenne were married Dec. 22, 1872. They became my parents.

Along about 1874 the United States survey was officially made in this area. Hopes ran high for the Gamlin brothers. Israel could soon file for his timber claim. The officials planned otherwise. They made a note that this was an unusual group of Sequoias, and that the U.S. Gov’t should set them aside as a small National Park. Gamlin was approached with a proposition. He should relinquish his Squatters claim right, and the government would reimburse him for his improvements and his future expectations. He dropped his claim priority, but the on-the-spot agreement made far from the seat of government at Washington was never ratified by Congress. It probably was too small a matter to follow up. After a time Israel went to the timberlands in Idaho, to start in all over again. In his older years, while visiting at my Dunlap home, he went up to see his trees. He was happy to find them protected as a park, with good roads and an automobile to get him there.

It has been my happy privilege to have had a part in the beginnings of the various events that are practiced in so entertaining a way in the park today. My first remembrance centers around the first ceremonial event of any kind ever to be held under the Big Trees. When General Grant, our ex-President, died in the summer of 1885, the ladies at the Comstock Mill near Big Stump planned a memorial service to be held at the Grant Tree. Mrs. Dave Robinson of Visalia, Mrs. Dorn, Mrs. Wasgatt and Miss Yost of Selma and Mrs. Arley Pursell supervised the ceremony. They gathered up some black material, probably a black silk dress, and made a rosette wreath with flowing streamers. The next Sunday everybody in camp went over to the Grant Tree. A light wagon and two horses carried mothers with babies and small children. Over rocks and up and down steep hills the wagon bumped along and made its way. A few went on horseback. The rest of us walked. I was eleven, just the right age to walk. That’s what I did. We gathered flowers as we walked along. There was purple penny royal, and yellow wild iris. Nearing the meadow, we found tiger lillies and laural. Arriving at the trees we solemnly grouped around about the noble Grant Tree. The wreath was placed high on the big bulge. We placed our little bouquets of wild flowers about the base of the bulge. The group sang a sacred song. A short obituary was read and Arley Pursell gave a prayer as we reverently bowed our heads. Nowhere was our ex-President paid a more sincere tribute. His place in history will be kept alive this living, growing, largest tree on earth. Truly a lasting memorial to a great General.

In 1890 the Big Trees were set aside for a National Recreation Park. For a few summers a U. S. Cavalry troop was stationed near the Gamlin Cabin to guard the Big Trees in the little park. The company included thirty-two uniformed soldiers. Each rode a well-groomed handsome white horse. They made an impressive picture as they patroled the stately green forests. The Gamlin Cabin was put in use to store hay and grain for the horses. The park was named the “General Grant National Park.”

In a few years the cabin was dismantled, and the logs were moved up to the present headquarters site. It was reraised and used as a commisary building. In course of time the cavalry

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troop was replaced by Park Rangers. The first ranger, Milo Decker, lived for a time in the cabin. As the park took on a more progressive appearance, the old cabin became an eye sore. A tree fell across the roof, caving it in. Its near doom was then sealed. It was ordered destroyed by burning. Mrs. A. B. Overholser of Squaw Valley, an early pioneer in California, took the lead in an effort to have the logs moved back to their original site. It was my great pleasure to take an active part in the restoration. Many people in Tulare and Fresno Counties petitioned Colonel White, who was then Superintendent of both the Grant Park and the Sequioa Park. He granted the request to save the logs and ordered the cabin dismantled, once again, and the logs hauled back down to the original site. Thomas Gamlin came up and located the exact spot on which the cabin had been built sixty years before.

There were no appropriations for such a project as restoring old buildings. But that was no barrier in the mind of Mrs. Overholser. She busied herself soliciting volunteer workmen. From Orange Cove and other places a group of men came in 1931 and an old fashioned log raising took place. Young Israel Gamlin and his brother Arley, sons of Thomas Gamlin, helped reraise the old cabin. Your humble historian assisted Mrs. Overholser with a banquet noon dinner and the serving of it. Tables were spread on the flat across the road and down from Fallen Monarch. The walls were placed, but stood out in the winter snow without a roof. In 1932 a dedication ceremony took place for the cabin. I shall attempt to give you a word picture of the program as it appeared to me as I stood at my position in the cabin doorway. Looking to the east, on the slope of the rocky hill is an Indian teepee. Braves and Indian Maidens and mothers with children are sitting about. These are real local Indians. High on the rugged slope among the rocks Mrs. Grace Osborn Wharton stands. She is singing “Land of the Sky Blue Waters,” an Indian melody composed by Charles Wakefield Cadman. The words ring out clear and wonderfully sweet over the peaceful Indians seated below. Off to the left and a bit lower on the hill amid some large rocks stands Mrs. Elizabeth La Dow of Visalia. She is dressed in a fringed buckskin Pocahontas type Indian Princess suit. She recites her original poem written for the occasion–“To the Builder of the cabin.” From in front of the doorway, dressed in a fronteer woman’s costume, stands “me” to give the “Story of the Cabin.” Beside me is my small granddaughter Elizabeth Ray, daintily arrayed in an early American costume and poke bonnet. She presents a wreath of bay to Acting Supertintendent Guy Hoppong, who stands nearby. He places it on the wall near the doorway, in memory of the builder of the cabin. Out in front an organ peals forth melodies and voices reach to the tree tops in songs of Long Ago. A picnic dinner down at the outdoor picnic grounds followed the program.

The old cabin is now dedicated as a park shrine in memory of the first white man to build a home in the Big Trees area.

In the late summer of the following year we ladies of the Dunlap Social Club arranged a pageant, featuring early days in the park. Indians in camp pantomimed early Indian customs. A chieften smokes a pipe of peace. Rings of smoke curl upward, good will between the Reds and Whites gave evidence that wars between the two races were over. Squaws illustrate their artifacts. Some were weaving baskets. From the raw material to the intricately designed figured product, the method was shown. Some made acorn bread cracking acorns open with their teeth, peeling the kernals, processing and mortar grinding them, cooking with hot rocks and dishing out with fingers was all made clear. Young maidens made bead belts and headbands. The Indians were clearly the center of attraction to a large crowd of visitors. An ox team then made its appearance from the wooded hillside. Yes, the Women’s Club of Dunlap made that feature all by themselves. Being a bit more daring than the others and handy with a hammer, nails and a saw, I confess to having created the wagon and oxen. Lots of hard work, but much simpler than it would seem. The running gears of an old buggy, some pick up lumber to saw and nail into a wagon bed, small willow limbs for bows and a canvas for a cover does very nicely. A woman with a baby and a couple of children ride easily in the seat and back in the bed. An iron kettle and a water bucket swings from under the back. A water keg attached to the side of the bed gives a realistic picture of water shortage out on the plains. For the oxen, narrow strips of lumber for the back, the legs, hip bones, neck and head made a beginning. Pliable willow limbs, curved as needed, rounded out the body contour lines. Draped with barley sacks, one red & one white. Some horns, ears, eyes and a tail, most anyone would recognize them as oxen. Pretty raw boned and wild eyed to be sure, but passable. They set on a frame under which are large rollers. Coming down an easy grade a boy leads them into camp. Horseback riders follow. Footmen and children trail along. A restful time in camp, with music and activity followed.

The Women’s Booster Club at Wilsonia gave a late summer “Reciprocity Dinner Party” at the summer music camp in the later 1930’s. After dinner talks covered such subjects as “keeping camps clean,” “beautifying the park,” “instilling the better things in life in the minds of the park users,” “be careful about fires,” “regard for the rights and comforts of others” and such like. It was my pleasant privilege to recite my original poem; an “Appreciation of the parks.”

July 15, 1931, an estimated 1000 persons looked on at the first wedding to take place in the park. Miss Naomi Zellers of Miami, Oklahoma, and Ranger Frank B. Myers were united in marriage at the base of the Grant Tree. Rev. J. A. Price read the ceremony. In the wedding party were: Acting Superintendent Guy Hopping, Ranger Hawley, Miss Vesta Myers, Mrs. Asa Peck and Mrs. Jessie Finch. Little Patricia Newman acted as flower girl. A beautiful wedding in a perfect setting.

In October, 1938, a class of Civilian Conservation Corps boys, who were in camp Cedar Springs in the park, were graduated from the Camp Elementary Educational school. Mrs. Lorena Clingan, of Dunlap, was their teacher. The graduation exercises were held down in the flat below the Fallen Monarch. The class faced the group of giant trees. The arrangements and the graduates were a credit to the inspiring setting. The class diplomas were bound in soft forest green leather. The boys were leaving for their respective homes, most of them a state or community where education advantages had been limited. They carried with them those precious leather bound diplomas with high and noble asberations to live up to the training and educational opportunities they had found in the shadows of the Majestic Sequoias. Most of the boys, through letters, have kept Mrs. Clingan informed about their marriages, their life work activities and their war experiences. It was my happy privilege to have a part in their program, giving them a historical sketch about the Grant Park and about early events that had helped to make park history. Having a part in all these activities had kept me in close touch with events passing of time for the trees that meant so much to the Gamlin brothers. A few years back the General Grand Park came within the boundaries of the newly created Kings Canyon National Park. The grove of Big Trees are now known as the “Grant Grove.”

The crowning glory in the life of the Big Grant Tree has been its acceptance as the “Nation’s Christmas Tree.” Each year the people of Sanger sponsor a religious service. From far and near, groups travel to the noble tree to pray, sing praises and talk to God beneath its branches. Some years snow is too deep for any but sturdy limbs with brave hearts to tackle. There have been years when snow and storms prevent anyone getting in. At such times services are held in a Sanger church. In 1924 and again in 1950 there was no snow. Weather was ideal and roads perfect. Hundreds gathered at the tree, to worship on Christ’s birthday, to worship under the largest and oldest growing thing on earth. Something that was here even when Moses climbed Mt. Sini–will be remembered all one’s days. I am happy

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remembering being present several times.
And now tonight, at the age of 77, it is wonderful to be a speaker on your program. Your evening gathering marks another mile stone on the trail of events in this park that have blossomed into a nation-wide attraction.
Since 1872 there has always been a Gamlin here to watch over the old cabin near Grant Tree. There are many of the younger generation nearby who will watch when we are gone.

Mrs. McGee

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