Calaveras Big Trees State Park is a state park located in California, United States, that preserves two giant sequoia tree groves. Arnold is located in the middle elevations of the Sierra Nevada, 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of California. It has been a major tourist attraction since 1852, when the trees' existence was first widely reported, and is considered the longest continuously operated tourist resort in California.

The giant sequoia was well known to the Native American tribes living in its area. Native American names for the species are in Wawona, toos-pung-ish, and hea-mi-in, with the last two in the language of the Tule River Tribe.

The first reference by Europeans to the giant sequoias of the Calaveras Big Trees is in the diary of explorer JK Leonard in 1833; the reference doesn't mention a specific place, but its route must have taken it through the Calaveras Grove. [1] This discovery has not been made public. The next European to see the trees was John M. Wooster, who in 1850 carved his initials on the bark of the 'Hercules' tree in Calaveras Grove; Again, this one received no publicity. Much more publicity was given to the "discovery" by Augustus T. Dowd of North Grove in 1852, and it is often referred to as the discovery of both the grove and the species as a whole.

The "Tree of Discovery" was noted by Augustus T. Dowd in 1852 and fell in 1853, leaving a giant log and a trunk section showing the holes made by the augers used to topple it. [2] It measured 25 ft (7.6 m) in diameter at its base and was determined to be 1,244 years old when overturned by ring count. A section of the hull was toured with little fanfare, while the log was later converted into a dance floor. John Muir, "Then the Vandals Danced on the Stump!" He wrote an article entitled To criticize the felling of the tree.

Discovery Tree - The largest known Giant Redwood, but has been cut down. Notice an adult person standing on the platform body in the picture above
A second tree, named "Mother of the Forest" in 1854, swam alive from its bark in 1854 to be reassembled in exhibitions. This mortally injured the tree, as the outer protective layer of bark was removed, the tree lost its resistance to fire. If you look closely, there are still horizontal saw marks on the tree to remove bark. The tree did not survive for long, as it shed all its shadow in 1861. In 1908, when the tree was not protected by its fireproof bark, a fire swept the area and burned most of what was left of the tree. . Today, only a snag blackened by fire remains from the Mother of the Forest.