Treasure Tales R-S

In 1958, Clemmie Gill donated 35 acres near Springville to the Tulare County Office of Education, and its SCICON outdoor school of science and conservation was born. Fifth and sixth graders are still learning on SCICON’s now 1,000 acre campus and in its museum, planetarium, observatory, and other facilities, open to the public annually for its BBQ & Wildflower Festival and two Open House events.

Hear in the backcountry rangers’ own voices why their job is “a very coveted park position and the one in Sequoia [and Kings Canyon national parks] has got to be one of the best in the nation”; the job is strenuous, challenging, sometimes dangerous, and endlessly rewarding (they get paid in sunsets).

Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks’ trail crews are responsible for creating and maintaining over a thousand miles of trails, working long and arduous days in every kind of weather, often in remote backcountry, at elevations ranging from 2,000 to 14,495 feet. Find out who they are, what they do, and what it takes to get on a trail crew. This job “guarantees an unforgettable experience.”

This giant sequoia was brought from Grant Grove in Kings Canyon National Park in 1936, when it was three years old, and planted beside the Visalia Town Center Post Office. A historic treasure, it is also an important reminder of the Central Valley’s vital connection to the Sierra Nevada, source of much of our water supply, as explained in the interpretive features and walkway installed at its base in 2018.

Sequoia National Forest’s 1.1 million acres include Giant Sequoia National Monument, 850 miles of trails, 200 miles of Wild and Scenic Rivers, and six Wilderness areas, for endless backpacking, biking, bird watching, boating, botanizing, camping, climbing, fishing, hiking, horseback riding and packing, hunting, kayaking, OHVing, photography, picnicking, whitewater rafting, wildflower and wildlife viewing, and winter and water play opportunities.

Sequoia National Park, created in 1890, protects over 400,000 acres, from foothill oak woodlands to Mt. Whitney, highest peak in the contiguous U.S., enticing backpackers, birdwatchers, botanists, campers, cavers, climbers, equestrians, fisher folk, hikers, photographers, picnickers, skiers, and lovers of giant sequoias, geology, wildlife, wildflowers, and history to linger ever longer amidst its treasures.

The Shorty Lovelace Historic District in the high Sierra Nevada of Kings Canyon National Park gives a view into the lifeway, ingenuity, and endurance that Shorty embodied for 40 years as Tulare County’s last true fur-trapping mountain man. Accessible only by foot or stock trail, the sites and remains of his hand-built bare-bones backcountry winter shelters fascinate today’s visitors who learn Shorty’s story.

The thousands of hikers summiting 14,505′ Mt. Whitney each year are often amazed, and many times protected, by the 1909 stone and steel Smithsonian Institution Shelter built there with great hardship to enable scientists to survive extreme weather at the top while conducting their astrophysical studies under the stunningly clear starry skies that those hiking the high trail at night can still experience.

Located on the rodeo grounds just west of town, the scenic Springville Historical Museum is a wonderful repository of the artifacts and historic records of the upper Tule River region — its early life; its logging, mining, livestock, transportation, and hydropower industries; its important sanitarium; and the beautifully restored, fully furnished pioneer Murphy House crowning its charming outdoor premises.

In 2009, Paul and Ruth Buxman traded the development rights on their 40 acre Sweet Home Ranch for a farmland conservation easement, one of Tulare County’s first, securing their prime agricultural land as “Farmland Forever.” Visit these California Clean Growers during their annual two-day harvest festival to savor the produce of local small family farms, wonderful art, crafts, music, and hayride farm tours.