Over a million people a year walk, hike, or ride horseback on the amazingly diverse trails of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. From a short, easy stroll into a magnificent giant sequoia grove to a strenuous backpacking trip to the summit of rugged Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the 48 contiguous states, these paths offer people of all ages, inclinations, and abilities a multitude of opportunities to experience the parks’ wonders in the very best way: at a walking pace, free to pause whenever they please, immersed in the sights, scents, sounds, and thrills of the wild world.

     Ranging in elevation from less than 2,000 feet up to 14,500 feet, the trails traverse over a thousand miles to connect the major features and extraordinary environments of these spectacular parks. Who builds these beckoning byways, and who maintains them in the face of floods, fires, avalanches, rock slides, falling trees, deep snows, and thoughtless trail-cutters?

     Since the National Park Service was established in 1916, this essential work has been carried out primarily by NPS Trail Crews (while Civilian Conservation Corps workers contributed a tremendous amount of trail maintenance from 1933 to 1942). Beginning in the 1970s, the parks have also been partnering with volunteer service organizations such as the Youth Conservation Corps to help maintain the miles of trails being “loved to death” by the increasing national interest in outdoor recreation.

     It’s not easy to get hired on to a Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks trail crew. First, applicants must realize that their work locations may be in any area of these two parks, which are 93% wilderness and span “an extraordinary continuum of ecosystems, arrayed along the greatest vertical relief (1,370 to 14,495 feet elevation) of any protected area in the lower 48 states.”

     Trail crew positions require wilderness travel and camping skills; the ability to hike at high altitude for extended periods of time and up to 20 miles a day while carrying backpacks, tools, and supplies weighing at least 50 pounds; and the ability to perform masonry and carpentry work in addition to a full spectrum of basic trail work, including clearing fallen logs, removing encroaching vegetation, digging to maintain drainage structures or trail tread, and moving materials of all shapes and sizes in rugged terrain.

     Are you still interested?

     Trail crews in these parks work outdoors in temperatures varying from over a hundred degrees down to near ten degrees, and may experience heavy rain, hail, and falling snow. Typically, the work environment is hot, dusty, dirty, and sometimes noisy. Working long hours, hiking or riding horseback in rough country, crews may encounter hazards such as poisonous plants and animals and high, cold, swift water at stream crossings.

     They construct, repair, and maintain bridges, abutments, aesthetically pleasing rock walls, walkways, causeways, trail tread, water bars and retainer steps. Their tools include rock bars and drills, jacks, chisels, a variety of saws, timber tongs, draw knives, planes, and other masonry and carpentry tools, which they also clean and repair.

     Heavy physical effort is required in using both hand and power tools; frequently lifting , carrying, or rolling objects such as rocks and logs weighing over 100 pounds; moving slabs and boulders weighing several tons with rock bars; using hammers to crush or shape rock; and shoveling extensively.

     To provide for visitor access and safety, the crews build all kinds of trails, from accessible trails meeting Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines in some frontcountry sites to trails that climb to high mountain peaks in the backcountry. Laws including the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Trail System Act, the Wilderness Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Clean Water Act all apply in Sequoia and Kings Canyon.

     These laws require trails to avoid damaging habitats or disrupting important lands, waters, or historic or prehistoric sites. To protect cultural and natural resources, crews may route trails around sensitive areas, construct boardwalks over wetlands, or seasonally close trails during nesting or migration times.

     Crew members must also have the ability to live and work effectively in remote, primitive backcountry areas in close contact with small numbers of people for two to twelve weeks at a time. Crews typically consist of three to ten NPS workers, and a Cook for work in the backcountry. Crews may be supplemented by work groups from the California Conservation Corps, the Student Conservation Corps, Volunteers-in-Parks, and other programs. To support backcountry projects, pack trains periodically bring in food, mail, supplies, and equipment.

     Would you like to gain the extra skills and responsibilities of a crew leader?

     Trail crew leaders not only perform the full spectrum of trail work themselves. They also have to perform inspections, surveys, and inventories of facilities for maintenance needs to provide for accurate planning and scheduling of work, and make informed recommendations for operational improvements. They plan, lead, and supervise the crew’s work, provide training, emphasize and monitor safety, and, of course, write reports.

     Additionally, crew leaders must possess and maintain an NPS Blasters License because they serve as Blaster in Charge to remove obstacles such as logs and rocks from trail tread, to quarry stone for masonry work, and to establish trail bench in bedrock areas. They also assist in mule and horse packing operations by riding on mountainous trails, preparing supplies and materials for mule transport, tying on loads, and leading pack animals. To move big boulders and logs in the wilderness, they set up and use human-powered winches and rigging such as high-lines.

     The crews often coordinate with backcountry rangers to determine and prioritize projects in their work areas, and frequently assist park visitors by providing information about trails and weather, helping with communications and directions, and even participating in searches for persons reported missing or overdue.

     Have you had the opportunity to thank a trail crew yet? Next time you’re traveling on some part of the tremendous trail network in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, pause to reflect on what you’re walking on and appreciate the work of the dedicated, skillful men and women who have labored for such long hours in such difficult conditions to make your journey as smooth and safe as they can.

     As a young worker from the Eastern Sierra Conservation Corps serving in our parks put it, ” It takes tremendous grit and passion for a member of a national park trail crew to thrive. Though the days may be long, the physical demands arduous, and the unexpected challenges difficult to navigate, one thing is for sure: serving on a trail crew guarantees an unforgettable experience.”

     (If you’d like to try to join a national park trail crew, check usajobs.gov and search for “maintenance worker trails”.)

May, 2020

NOTE:  To find the “History of the Wilderness Trail System of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks,“ see Granite Pathways, by William C. Tweed (Three Rivers, CA; Sequoia Parks Conservancy, 2021).

     Paul and Ruth Buxman’s Sweet Home Ranch will remain forever in farming. And that’s just the way they want it. In fact, that’s what they stipulated when they traded the development rights on their 40 acre farm east of Kingsburg for one of the first two farmland conservation easements in Tulare County. The other is held by close neighbor and friend Jim Moore.

     The easements were facilitated by Sequoia Riverlands Trust in 2009 with funding to buy the farmers’ development rights coming from Tulare County’s Measure R road improvement tax fund. As part of the county’s project to widen the Visalia/Dinuba highway (Road 80), Cal Trans stipulated that the farmland being eaten up by the widening must be mitigated by placing farmland conservation easements on comparable prime agricultural land.

     In addition to being a farmer, Paul Buxman is also an artist, musician, teacher, mentor, rural philosopher, and visionary. He was eager to save his farm from the threat of urbanization as new subdivisions leap-frogged across the fertile Kings River plain toward his property.

     His son, Wyeth, the fourth generation of Buxmans at Sweet Home Ranch, is also greatly relieved. He didn’t think he could continue the family’s farming tradition if faced with the traffic, dust, and noise generated by a population explosion nearby.

     Paul points to an amazing fact when he considers why he wants to preserve farmland. “A little more than one percent of the earth’s surface is actually farmable. That’s it. Only that one percent enables us to survive. I don’t think people realize that. When you remove arable land and put it into something non-productive – at least in the way of producing food and fiber – to bring it back into some kind of agrarian use is a massive undertaking,” he said.

     He and his neighbors live and work in an area they call the Golden Triangle of farmland. “Great water, great fertility, great location, great weather – and we’re trying to draw lines of farmland forever.”

     Paul understands completely the current trends in agriculture nationwide: (1) the average age of farmers is increasing as fewer young people choose to return to the family’s farm, and (2) farms are getting larger to take advantage of the economies of scale.

     Paul and like-minded small farmers are not only vested in farming as a livelihood, but they see it as a way of life – a place to raise their children and teach them about working and living with nature – “cultured nature, agriculture,” in Paul’s words. They believe land would be taken care of better for a longer period of time if children were introduced to it early, so farming is perpetuated.

     To express those concepts Paul started something called Celebration of the Small Family Farm. He formed a group of farmers called California Clean Growers (CCG). Their goal is to farm responsibly and win the hearts of urban people. California Clean Growers became known for making their farms and homes accessible to visitors, for conserving fertility of the soil and water through the practice of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and for marketing their products with the CCG backing.

     Paul and Ruth practice what they preach. Every year they set aside a portion of Sweet Home Ranch to give young people the experience of growing a crop. Through their church, the Buxmans are introduced to at-risk youth, who are invited to participate. Given tools and seeds for planting, the teens began with growing food items they could easily sell: watermelons, corn, and other favorites. “The kids had to grow it, tend it, weed it, harvest it, and sell it,” said Paul. They also learned to cook it and eat it. And they profited from it.

     With the earnings, Paul and Ruth began taking the youth on overnight trips to the nearby national parks – places the youngsters had never seen. “So, in this case,” said Paul, “farmland is being used as a way of gang prevention, a way of intervening in young people’s lives … and changing their lives for the better, we hope.”

     When not cultivating, irrigating, pruning, and taking care of his farm, Paul finds time for his other passion – art. A trained and noted painter of the Plein Air impressionistic style made famous during the Arts and Crafts era, Paul doesn’t have to travel far for his inspiration. He finds it in nature at his and nearby ranches and farms. He paints what he sees and what he understands – even the flow of water through the weir of an irrigation ditch is made beautiful with his choice of vibrant colors, shadows, and depth. Many online articles and interviews detail his art story.

     To share the beauty and the bounty of Sweet Home Ranch and nearby farms, Paul and Ruth host a harvest festival every year on the two days following Thanksgiving, inviting their neighbors and other small farmers to participate. The public is invited to enjoy the art show and tasting of locally handcrafted foods from 9-5:00 on Friday and 9-4:00 on Saturday at the ranch.

     Offered for entertainment, amusement and sale are: art, art cards, fresh fall fruit, trailer rides on the farm, locally made wines, 12 kinds of bread, handcrafted cheeses, dried fruit from small family farms, jams, jellies, soaps, infused honey, nuts, and more. Paul says, “Come out and see what we’re growing here for you.” On land that will be farmland forever.

November, 2012

     It can be hard to know when an important idea is conceived. To ninety-eight-year-old Virginia Radeleff the concept of a community museum is simply part of a small town’s unique history. Raised from birth in the foothill community of Springville, California, Miss Virginia grew up and spent most of her adult life living her community’s history.

     “I think I realized from the time I was a little kid, that the town was a little bit different, that it needed to be preserved.” she reflects. “It wasn’t quite like other towns.” Born in 1919, Virginia left Springville to attend two universities, obtain two teaching credentials, and to work in an aircraft factory during World War II. But she always returned home.

     “People knew from the time I started teaching when I was about 21 years old, that I was working for a museum. We talked about it. They knew it. The way youngsters grow up in a town like this needs to be preserved.”

     The way they grew up in Springville was indeed special. Small by any community standards, it was a foothill town without borders, with few fences or restrictions. Its children of the early 1900s played, ate, and grew up together under the direction of all their neighbors. According to Virginia, “Everybody had a garden and a milk cow and lived within their means.”

     The original town was formed when John Crabtree, one of the first settlers on the Tule River, sold a piece of his 1856 land patent to William G. Daunt. In the 1860s, Daunt built the area’s first combination store and post office, which served the growing area for many years. That piece of property, sitting beside today’s rodeo grounds, and still supporting the original post office/store chimney, became the eventual home of Springville’s Tule River Historical Museum.

     The story of Springville’s museum is a tale of vision, determination, cooperation, perseverance, and hard work. Its very existence stands as a testimonial to the kind of community Springville is, and to the woman who made it happen.

     Virginia Radeleff constantly gathered its history. The heritage of its prehistoric Yokuts people who thrived in the lush landscape of its clear springs. Its early years as an important way station for southern Sierra Nevada hunters, trappers, miners, stockmen, and sheep herders. Its years as a major lumber mill town, with a railroad line to serve it. Its evolving role in ranching and farming. Home to a major regional hospital facility during a pandemic of tuberculosis that ravaged the nation for over 50 years. Its importance as a gateway to the Sierra Nevada’s recreational opportunities on both federal and private lands.

     Every time someone had something they thought should be in the museum, they gave it to Virginia to store. Finally, in the 1970s, she had to tell the town, “It’s time for us to hunt for a museum because we can’t just keep putting it in Miss Virginia’s garage!”

     The first places the community approached—the closed hospital, an old railroad right-of-way site, and the property of the Springville Hotel that had burned down—all proved unworkable. Then an interesting offer came. Lindsay dentist Dr. Franklin Baughman and his wife were going to build a new house on the property of one of the area’s early homesteads. The historic Murphy House was in the way, so they offered it for use as a museum. But there was one caveat; the old building had to be hauled away.

     On September 13, 1981, the Tule River Historical Society became a legal non-profit entity with two stated goals: to research and preserve the history of the area—and to move and preserve the Murphy House.

     Four years later, with the Baughmans ready to build but still without a home for the building or the capability to move it, a crew of volunteers started taking the structure apart. Piece by piece, they numbered each one and stored them all in nearby turkey sheds, a sea cargo container, and a barn. It took almost ten years before the Society found a place to re-assemble them into a house. That place turned out to be the property of the old Daunt store and post office.

     Daunt’s one acre site, its location by the rodeo grounds, and its history made it a perfect location for the museum. The Historical Society approached Mariann Sanders, who owned the property, but, once again, there were problems. Funds to buy the property, access to it, water and electrical connections were all missing.

     A committee of the Historical Society went to work on the funding first. It offered to handle the sales of local historian Jeff Edwards’ book, 100 Year History of the Tule River Mountain Country, in return for a donation to buy the property. When the donation reached over $4,000, negotiations with Mariann Sanders began in earnest, and in 1988 an agreement was reached in which she donated the land in exchange for payment of back taxes.

     The next few years were busy. The Rodeo Association granted access to the site, the Lions Club donated over $5,000, and in 1990, after the Tulare County Planning Department issued a building permit and approval of the site plans, the Southern California Edison Company brought in an underground electrical conduit. The Historical Society repaired the Daunt chimney, fenced the site, and poured the slab for its first building. Finally, in 1994, the Murphy House was reassembled in its new home and its restoration began.

     Today, Springville’s Historical Museum stands as a wonderful repository for all the artifacts and historic records of the upper Tule River region that Virginia Radeleff and the Tule River Historical Society have gathered through the years. The fully restored Murphy House is a museum in itself, filled with pioneer furnishings, fascinating artifacts of early America, interpretive photos, stories, documents, and genealogies.

     The museum grounds display restored and refurbished artifacts seldom seen in a rural museum. A full blacksmith shop, freight wagons, a covered wagon, historic trucks and cars; early lumbering and water power equipment, farm and ranch equipment, a replica post office and stores; and the original Daunt chimney standing tall, as a witness to the passing times.

     One of Miss Virginia Radeleff’s goals for the future is for the Tule River Historical Society to collect the modern industrial and personal technologies that are changing rural America’s way of life today. To maintain and grow the Springville Museum as continuing testimony to an ever-evolving community and its special can-do people.

October, 2017

UPDATE: On Sunday, January 26, 2025, Miss Virginia Radeleff died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 105.  Her dedication to the education of generations of Springville’s students and to the collection, preservation, and dissemination of the community’s (and its region’s) history has left a lasting legacy that is truly a Tulare County Treasure.

 Mt Whitney lies on the boundary of Sequoia National Park and Inyo National Forest. About 30,000 people per year want to hike Mt. Whitney, so hikers must secure a permit from the Forest Service* in order to enter the Mt. Whitney Zone. Permits are required year-round, for both day and overnight use, and a quota system is in effect between May 1 and November 1.

 Applications to reserve a backpacking trip on the Mt. Whitney trail or a day hike in the Mt. Whitney Zone are accepted in the Mt. Whitney Lottery from February 1 through March 15. Any space left over after those dates will go on sale April 1 at 10:00 a.m. Go to https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/inyo/passes-permits/recreation/?cid=stelprdb5150055 for Inyo National Forest permit and trail information. Wilderness Office Information Line: 760-873-2483. Reservations can be made through www.recreation.gov.

Hikers are advised to carry crampons and ice axes when snow and ice may be on the trails. Those on the summit are warned against seeking shelter in the Smithsonian hut during lightning storms.

The Smithsonian Shelter was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 8, 1977, because it is “a monument to the difficulty of high altitude research in the period before prolonged human flight was possible.”

*If your trip begins in Sequoia or Kings Canyon national parks, then the Inyo National Forest will accept the permit issued by that agency as long as you meet the requirements for continuous wilderness travel.

     In terms of the acreage involved, no other conservation effort in the history of Tulare County comes close to the establishment of the Sequoia National Forest, and that story, like so many others, has its origins among the citizens of this county.

     When the effort began, the campaigns that would ultimately result in the creation of both Sequoia National Park and the Sequoia National Forest were one and the same. The goal, quite simply, was to protect all the Sierra Nevada watersheds that provided mountain water to the expanding farms of the San Joaquin Valley.

     The initiative got under way in Visalia in October 1889, when four local residents – Tipton Lindsey, Frank. J. Walker, John Tuohy, and George Stewart – launched a campaign to protect the mountain lands adjacent to the southern half of the San Joaquin Valley. Each of the four brought special skills to the movement. Lindsey, because he worked in the United States Land Office in Visalia, provided his knowledge of federal lands. Walker and Stewart were associated with the Visalia Delta newspaper. Tuohy, a rancher, knew the mountains first hand.

     Collecting information from the group, Stewart drafted a map of the area they wanted to see protected from overgrazing and logging, a huge tract of over two hundred thirty-six-square-mile townships, and circulated a petition calling for its protection as a federally-controlled reserve.

     The threat to the giant sequoia trees soon became so intense, however, that Stewart and his friends temporarily set aside this broader target and shifted their focus to a more limited and immediate goal – the establishment of a national park to protect the best of the giant sequoia trees. This effort gained energy over the summer of 1890, and Congress passed a bill establishing such a park in September 1890. A mere week later, the new park was enlarged, but it still contained only seven of the two hundred townships the group wanted to protect.

     The Visalia group remained in close contact with Interior Department Secretary John Noble, who was highly sympathetic to what they were trying to accomplish. Noble had the ear of President Benjamin Harrison, who had appointed him. This was an important connection because Harrison supported what came next when Noble succeeded in adding a forest reserve clause to an obscure piece of legislation focused on repealing obsolete timber culture laws.

     The March 1891 Forest Reserve Act, as it came to be known, gave the president the right to set aside lands from the public domain as “forest reserves,” thus withdrawing them from sale to private interests.

     This provided the Visalians with just the authority they needed to renew their campaign for protecting the entirety of the southern Sierra. The Visalia group resumed their political efforts.

     Responding to the resulting local interest in forest protection, Secretary Noble put special land agent B. F. Allen on the ground in the Sierra studying what lands might logically be placed within a “Tulare Forest Reserve.”

     Allen, working largely alone, resumed his efforts once the snows melted from the Sierra in the spring of 1892, and he finished his report in January 1893. He had spent most of a year riding the trails of the Sierra, checking on conditions, and listening to local concerns.

     Time was running short now, for President’s Harrison’s term was ending, and thus Noble would soon also be leaving the Interior Department. Noble pushed Allen’s report onto the president’s desk, and on February 14, 1893, just two weeks before the end of his term, President Harrison created the “Sierra Forest Reserve” under the authority granted to him by the Forest Reserve Act. The new reservation set aside for permanent public ownership over four million acres of forest land.

     It took another dozen years and a government reorganization before effective management came to the reserve, but the changes did come. In 1905, management of the reserve was transferred to a new agency in the Agriculture Department, the United States Forest Service. In 1908, the new managers renamed the Tulare County portion of the forest reserve the Sequoia National Forest, the name under which the huge area is still managed today (with 353,000 acres of it designated as Giant Sequoia National Monument in April, 2000).

     Tipton Lindsey, Frank. J. Walker, John Tuohy, and George Stewart had succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. The Sequoia National Forest is the direct result of the efforts of these forward-thinking early Tulare County citizens.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     October, 2012

     The Sequoia National Forest includes elevations ranging from 1,000 to over 12,000 feet, more than 30 giant sequoia groves (and Giant Sequoia National Monument), over 1500 miles of maintained roads, 1000 miles of abandoned roads, and 850 miles of trails (including 78 miles of the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail and three National Recreation Trails: Summit, Cannell Meadow, and Jackass Creek), over 200 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers, over 300,000 acres of wilderness, 158 ponds and lakes, 52 developed campgrounds, and frontcountry and backcountry winter activity areas. Portions of four of its six designated wilderness areas are within Tulare County: South Sierra, Domeland, Jennie Lakes, and Golden Trout. Three USDA Forest Service ranger districts — Hume Lake, Western Divide, and Kern River — administer the 1.1 million-acre Sequoia National Forest.

     Joseph Walter “Shorty” Lovelace may not have looked like the classic image of a mountain man, but the National Historic District bearing his name in the rugged high Sierra Nevada of Kings Canyon National Park is a testament to the lifeway, ingenuity, and endurance Shorty embodied for forty years as a totally self-sufficient fur-trapping mountain man.

     Born in 1886 in Sacramento, he moved with his family two years later to a homestead several miles above the village of Three Rivers in the foothills of what became Sequoia National Park in 1890. Shorty spent his early years exploring, hunting, and trapping with his four brothers and his pioneer father.

     The family moved to Visalia in time for Shorty to attend high school there, and he turned out to be a fine mechanic. He operated a garage in Tulare County and then in Reno, Nevada, before opening a pump shop in Visalia in partnership with his boyhood friend Charles Hammer, whose sister he married a few years later.

     But by 1920, Shorty had lost his partnership, his marriage, and all his prospects to alcoholism. His father and his brother Bryan helped Shorty find a way out. Together, they completed a cabin compound begun in 1911, including corrals and pelt-drying racks, in Crowley Canyon near Comanche Meadow, a few miles beyond Sequoia National Park’s northern boundary. Shorty would live there all winter, where the solitude, peace, beauty, labors of trapping, and absence of liquor stores would keep him sober and productive for half the year.

     From that base camp, Shorty steadily extended his range, building as many as 36 smaller shelters throughout the South Fork of the Kings River drainage. All but one were smaller than six by ten feet, with none taller inside than five and a half feet, which was fine for Shorty, who stood only about 5’3″.

     They were tiny because he built most of them single-handedly, so the materials couldn’t be too large or heavy. Also, he didn’t want them to be noticed, by people or animals. A small space was easier to heat, important when temperatures often fell below zero, and snugly accommodated his furnishings, consisting of only a little plank bed at one end, a mortarless stone fireplace at the other, and numerous shelves to hold his utensils and supplies.

     Shorty constructed these winter homes usually in the summer or early fall, from the natural materials available at each site. Whenever possible, he used small fallen trees, which he cut into logs 6-12″ in diameter for the walls. He notched them lightly to fit together and spiked wooden wedges or poles into place to fill the gaps. Sometimes he used stones for foundations, but his floors were all just dirt.

     He cut poles to serve as rafters. Shakes made the roof and also the door, which hung on leather straps. He tied a piece of rope to an overhanging branch so that he could dig below it to locate each den in the snow.

     By October, Shorty was loading pack animals, his own or ones he rented, with canned goods, traps, toilet paper, blankets, candles, matches, reading material, and everything else he would need alone in the mountains for the next five or six months. As he stocked each cabin and lean-to, he also laid in a big supply of firewood, his only source of heat for the long winter. When all his shelters were ship-shape, he took the pack animals out of the mountains and watched the peaks for snowfall.

     Shorty was a strong, skilled, resourceful mountain man, who worked hard as a fur trapper. He travelled only on foot or his home-made skis (equipped with pine marten climbing skins for trekking uphill) until he brought the pack animals back in the spring to haul out his winter accumulation of furs.

     His huge territory covered most of the watershed of the South Fork of the Kings River, spanning 50 miles from his Crowley Canyon compound to his cabins in Upper Basin, and ranging in elevation from 4,600 feet to over 12,000. Unless the weather was too extreme, he was out every day, traveling over steep, trackless, rugged terrain, setting his traps, checking them regularly, killing and skinning the animals he caught, processing their pelts, watching for treacherous ice or snow, wary of avalanches, falling rocks and trees, and sudden storms.

     Only once did the mountains almost beat him. One winter in the 1930s, a falling tree crashed into his Granite Pass cabin, caught fire, and burned him out. Despite painful internal injuries, Shorty had to reach shelter before nightfall. Gradually he moved from cabin to cabin, covering almost 50 miles back to his Crowley Canyon headquarters. A snow survey crew, finding him there in March, still in bad shape, offered to take him out of the mountains, but Shorty refused. When the snow melted, he walked out alone.

     Shorty continued his annual schedule by selling his pelts in the spring, in Visalia or San Francisco. He earned up to $2,000 a year for his furs (fisher furs averaged about $45 each, wolverines $25 to $30, and martens about $15), when most California trappers reported making about $160.

     After giving his brother enough money to cover his re-stocking costs in the fall, Shorty spent his summers blowing most of his earnings on binge drinking, but also, when sober, working on his shelters in the mountains and on odd jobs in the valley, and visiting his extended family at various gatherings, where he was especially a much-loved uncle of the children.

     A letter was waiting for Shorty when he came out of the mountains in the spring of 1940. It said that Kings Canyon National Park had been established on March 4. Encompassing virtually all of Shorty’s trapping range, the park did not allow hunting or trapping.

     Shorty, age 54, knew what he had to do. Within just a few years, he completed a new layout of traplines and shelters north of the new national park, on the watershed of the North Fork of the Kings in the Sierra National Forest. He worked his new territory for another 20 years, until, at age 75, he brought his winter harvest down from the mountains for the last time.

     Shorty died two years later, in 1963, but at least two of his structures survive. In the 1970s, and again in 2012, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks restored his Cloud Canyon and Vidette Meadow cabins (the latter just north of the Tulare County line). Visitors can duck under their low doorways and imagine spending 15-hour nights there under 10 feet of snow with only a candle and an old magazine for company and a little fire for warmth after working traplines alone in the wilderness all day.

     As one visitor remarked, “Shorty must have been one tough, savvy woodsman.” While our time spent in the high Sierra is different in many ways from Shorty’s, these magnificent mountains are still a haven of solitude, respite, peace, beauty, and adventure for us all.

November, 2020

     Of the many contributions made by the citizens of Tulare County to the conservation of nature, no other effort comes close to matching the 1890 campaign to create Sequoia National Park. Not only did this effort establish one of our nation’s premiere national parks but it also was a key step in the development of the idea that our nation should have a national park system made up of multiple units. Today that model is emulated worldwide.

     The government of the United States, prior to 1890, had taken two major preliminary steps toward developing what we now recognize as the national park idea. The first of these occurred in 1864, when Congress, in response to a request from a number of prominent California residents, gave title to Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of the giant sequoias to the State of California to be managed as a public park. The resulting nature preserve, in many ways America’s first major step toward creating a national park, was to be managed by the State of California.

     Eight years later, in 1872, Congress did create a national park – Yellowstone. Again, a small group of influential citizens lobbied to create the reservation. The difference this time was there was as yet no State of Wyoming to give the park to – the area was still a territory under direct federal management. Out of this came Yellowstone National Park.

     Many who supported the creation of Yellowstone envisioned it as adequate to meet all the young nation’s need for wildland recreation. At the time, Yellowstone was thought of as the national park; certainly one such place was all the nation would ever require.

     Enter the citizens of Tulare County. As early as the late 1870s, George Stewart of the Visalia Delta newspaper had begun to editorialize about the need to protect the amazing giant sequoia trees of the southern Sierra Nevada and the forests in which they grew. At that time almost all the land in the mountains was for sale by the federal government with the expectation that it would eventually be sold to private parties and logged.

     Stewart and his friends initiated their efforts by seeking temporary suspension of land sales in a number of key tracts of giant sequoia trees. They achieved some short-term successes in this effort, but all knew that they needed a permanent solution if they were to preserve these special forests.

     By 1889, Stewart had begun to lobby for the creation of a national park in Tulare County. State administration of Yosemite had not turned out all that well, and Stewart thought that the Yellowstone model offered more promise for protecting the mountains east of Visalia.

     The campaign took an even more serious direction in 1890, when the government prepared to release large tracts of temporarily protected mountains for sale. Stewart, working closely with Frank Walker, editorialized and networked, building support for the idea. He convinced Representative William Vandever, whose large district included Tulare County, to draft a bill to create a national park among the headwaters of the Kaweah River.

     As a result of the efforts of Stewart and many other Tulare County residents, the Sequoia National Park bill passed both houses of Congress as the summer ended, and was signed by President Benjamin Harrison on September 25, 1890.

     Just a week later, Congress passed another national park bill. It created a Yosemite National Park to surround the state park there, and also established General Grant National Park, which is today a part of Kings Canyon National Park in northern Tulare County.

     But it was the Sequoia National Park bill, which created America’s second national park, that initiated the formation of a system that now contains almost 400 separate units.

     It is hard to overestimate the significance of what Stewart and his Tulare County friends accomplished in 1890. Locally, they saved what we now know to be the largest trees on earth. Beyond that, they also established a pattern for national systems of preserved lands – a model that continues to expand across the planet even in the 21st century.

                                                                                                                                                                   October, 2012

     In February, 1936, Guy Hopping, Superintendent of General Grant National Park (now Kings Canyon National Park), brought two three-year-old giant sequoia trees from Grant Grove to the downtown Visalia Town Center Post Office, where he worked from an office in the basement during the winter. The Superintendent and Nathan Levy, Visalia’s Postmaster, planted the little trees one at each end of the recently-completed building.

     Around 50 years later, the ailing east-side sequoia had to be removed, but its sister tree kept growing. On April 28, 2018, a dedication ceremony was held to honor this now-towering 85-year-old Sequoia Legacy Tree. A historic treasure and source of pride for Visalia, it is also an important reminder of our valley’s vital connection to the Sierra Nevada.

     Attractive new signage tells the story. From the mountain home of the giant sequoias comes the surface water that flows in the valley’s rivers and creeks and the essential groundwater that we depend on throughout the year. As the sign reminds us, “It’s up to each of us to use our water wisely” to protect and conserve this legacy.

     The decomposed granite pathway that encircles the tree was designed to approximate the diameter of the General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park. This helps to provide scale for understanding how large these trees are capable of growing.

     In favorable conditions, giant sequoias can live well beyond 2,000 years. The first U.S. Post Office was established in 1775. Visalia was established in 1852. The Sequoia Legacy Tree is basically the same age as the post office building it stands beside; both came into being in 1933. What will their future be?

                                                                                                                                                                 July, 2018

 The Sequoia Legacy Tree interpretive feature is a project of the Visalia Convention and Visitors Bureau and was dedicated on April 28, 2018.

UPDATE: In the autumn of 2023, Visalia’s treasured Sequoia Legacy Tree began turning brown and was diagnosed with a fungus that had developed after two winters of heavy rains followed by two exceptionally hot summers. A horticulturist treated the great tree with a series of injections, but, most unfortunately, the dire fungus prevailed, the tree died, and the Postal Service removed it in February, 2025. It is hoped that the interpretive pocket park created around the tree in 2018 will remain. Visit Visalia is working with community partners on ideas for a replacement for the tree that will continue to honor its history and significance.

     SCICON is the story of the caring people of Tulare County. They care about children and about the land and they want future generations to also grow up caring about the land and the rich natural resources of Tulare County.

     In 1950, a science educator named Charles Rich began working for Tulare County Office of Education, traveling throughout the valley to assist schools with their science programs. Charles believed that students needed to realize the importance of the environment. He also believed that students learn best when they are actually experiencing something first-hand and see and live it for themselves. Charles believed that the students of Tulare County needed an outdoor school of their own.

     After discussing the idea with many educators, a pilot program was set up in 1958 at the YMCA camp “Tulequoia,” located at Sequoia Lake. The students from six schools came up for a week to hike, study, explore nature, and learn the importance of taking care of the environment and conserving natural resources. The name SCICON was given to the program, combining the key words science and conservation.

     The trial program was operated for three years and was a huge success. Students, teachers, parents, and educators all agreed that this was the best way to learn about the environment – to study it first-hand. But unfortunately, the special monies used to operate the trial program were running out. SCICON would not be able to continue unless something was done.

     Meanwhile, Charles Rich was becoming more convinced than ever that Tulare County must have its own outdoor school, a place within the county where students could come to study nature at its best. Charles searched the countryside looking for just the perfect spot. Finally he found it.

     In the foothills of the Sierra Nevada above Springville was a parcel of land known as the “Lost Forty.” At an elevation of 2000 feet, it was below the winter snow line but higher than the valley fog. Bear Creek flowed year-round through the middle of the area. The land abounded with plants and wildlife. The “Lost Forty” was part of the Gill family cattle ranch and Clemmie Gill owned the parcel.

     Charles approached Clemmie Gill about donating the “Lost Forty” for the SCICON program. At first Clemmie was not convinced the project would be successful. But Charles Rich did not give up. After several visits, Clemmie donated the “Lost Forty” (which turned out to be thirty-five acres) to Tulare County Office of Education in 1958 for use as an outdoor school site. SCICON was born!

     But Charles Rich knew that the work had only just begun. With a donation of wood from a lumber company, and labor from a carpenters’ union, the John Muir Lodge was built near Bear Creek in the center of the thirty-five acres. Over the ensuing years school districts recognized the value of the program and built cabins for the students to stay in.

     Thousands of students have now stayed in these cabins named after those districts (Tulare Cabin, Visalia Cabin, Lindsay Cabin, Dinuba Cabin, Orosi Cabin, Pixley Cabin, Earlimart Cabin, Shafter Cabin, Delano Cabin, Ivanhoe Cabin, Woodlake Cabin, Burton Cabin, Exeter House, Porterville Learning Center).

     There was no electricity on the campus at that time. Cabins were heated by fireplaces. Cabin counselors were often parents or teachers. There were no telephones, no hot showers, and no flush toilets – only outhouses! Life was rustic, but everyone loved it. SCICON began to flourish and grow.

     At first the 35 acres seemed like a lot of land. But as the SCICON program and facilities grew, the SCICON campus needed to grow as well. Through donations, a trade was made with the United States Forest Service for an additional thirty acres. In 1972, the adjoining private land next to SCICON was planned to be developed and sold so that homes and small ranches could be built. It was feared that the possibility of these new homes and buildings could threaten the serenity of the SCICON campus.

     Once again, the people of Tulare County showed they cared. A huge fundraising effort was begun in 1973, entitled “Acres for SCICON.” Presentations were made to school PTAs, service clubs, garden clubs, and chambers of commerce. In a three-year-span enough money was raised to buy the surrounding thousand acres! Now the pristine beauty of SCICON was guaranteed. Also through this effort, an organization called the “Friends of SCICON” was formed. To this day, donations of time, money, and materials continue to benefit the SCICON program.

     This spirit of giving has resulted in many improvements, all provided through donations, including showers and restrooms for the boys’ and girls’ villages, the Phyllis Wall Museum, the Max Cochran Planetarium, the Lyle Christman Observatory, the Handicabin, the Charles Rich Intern Staff House, the Health Center, the Briz Brizby Raptor Center, and the Barton Memorial Amphitheatre. Additionally, many miles of roads and trails have been built, all by volunteers.

     Despite all these developments, it became obvious by 2004 that Tulare County’s growing student population would soon exceed the program’s ability to schedule all of the sixth grade students. Possibilities were discussed and an idea was born to build a new village on the SCICON campus.

     A generous donation from Barbara and Melville Price (educators in Porterville) plus significant support from the Tulare County Board of Education made it possible for “Eagle Point Village” to be constructed near the museum during the summer and fall of 2007. On March 13, 2008, the first students started attending this new village. With the addition of Eagle Point, the SCICON experience is guaranteed for many future generations of students in Tulare County.

     Students at SCICON are reminded every day of all those who have made it possible for them to be there. Every trail they walk, every bridge they cross, every building they enter is a gift from people who cared. Students are taught to treat all these with respect and to give something back, and every student knows the SCICON motto: “SCICON is people working together!”

October, 2012