Author: [Advertising Leaflet]
Title: WELCHS' BIG TREE GROVE. Santa Cruz, California
Description: [Santa Cruz ?]: , (n. d.). Ca early 1900s. Now housed in a clear archival mylar sleeve. Single sheet, printed recto only, 34 lines of text. 8-1/2" x 5-1/2" In 1867, "a San Francisco couple, Joseph Warren Welch and his wife, Anna, purchased 350 acres of Rancho Zayante, which included the redwood grove and the large meadow beside it. Initially, the Welchs intended to use the property as a private ranch—which they did with over half the estate—but a constant flow of seasonal tourists convinced them that access to the redwood grove could not be denied to the public. The primary attraction at Welch's Big Trees, as it came to be called, was the 'Fremont Tree,' the hollowed-out redwood that he had apparently camped within in 1846. However, until the late 1870s, another larger tree was also known as the 'Fremont Tree' since Isaac Graham, owner of Rancho Zayante, had named it such back in the 1840s and even carved an 'F' in the bark to designate it. Slowly, the name transferred to the smaller, albeit more famous tree, and the larger tree was rechristened the "Giant" around 1884, right around the time the 'F' had entirely disappeared. From the mid-1870s to the mid-1900s, thousands of people came to visit Welch's Big Trees, and a tradition began of nailing postcards to the bark of the giant trees. All of the named trees, which increased in number almost annually, eventually were marked with postcards until President Theodore Roosevelt visited in 1903 and effectively ended the practice by making a derisive off-hand comment about it." [website: SantaCruzTrains:Curiosities:BigTrees]. Minor signs of wear, faint fold-lines, a VG+ copy of this rare survivor.

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