Mountain Home Grove is a grove of giant sequoia trees located in the southern part of the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

Mountains of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, and includes some of the largest trees in the world.

Description

Mountain Home Grove is located partly in

Balch Park Balch Park is a county park in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains of California that features a grove of Giant Sequoia trees. It also has archaeological sites relating to the early Native Americans of the area, and to the late 19th- and earl ...

, which is administered by

Tulare County Tulare County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 473,117. The county seat is Visalia. The county is named for Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great Lakes. ...

, partly in the

Mountain Home Demonstration State Forest Mountain Home Demonstration State Forest (MHDSF) is a state forest located on Bear Creek Road (Tulare County Route 220), northeast of Springville, California, Springville in Tulare County, California, Tulare County, California. The protected land ...

(MHDSF), and partly in

Giant Sequoia National Monument The Giant Sequoia National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located in the southern Sierra Nevada in eastern central California. It is administered by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the Sequoia National Forest and includes 38 of the 3 ...

, which was formerly in

Sequoia National Forest Sequoia National Forest is located in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains of California. The U.S. National Forest is named for the majestic Giant Sequoia (''Sequoiadendron giganteum'') trees which populate 38 distinct groves within the boundar ...

. The grove includes four of the 20 largest giant sequoia trees (by volume), as well as several other notable trees. This makes Mountain Home the second largest grove of sequoias. Only the

Giant Forest The Giant Forest, famed for its giant sequoia trees, is within the United States' Sequoia National Park. This montane forest, situated at over above mean sea level in the western Sierra Nevada of California, covers an area of . The Giant Forest ...

Sequoia National Park Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890, and today protects of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing ...

is larger. Because of easy access from the cities of Fresno and Porterville, and far fewer visitors than in the groves in Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks, the Mountain Home Grove is considered one of the best places to see giant sequoias.

History

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist, a ...

in some words he wrote in 1875 on

Yosemite Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

, but did not publish until 1890, described the sequoia groves in the upper drainage of the north fork of the

Tule River The Tule River, also called Rio de San Pedro or Rio San Pedro, is a river in Tulare County in the U.S. state of California. The river originates in the Sierra Nevada east of Porterville and consists of three forks, North, Middle and South. The N ...

(i.e., the Mountain Home Grove) as ''"the finest block of Sequoia in the entire belt".'' Nonetheless, logging began here in the 1870s, and in the next few years many of the big trees were felled, including the Centennial tree, which many at the time believed to be the largest tree on earth. Fortunately, pioneers John Doyle and Jesse Hoskins in the 1880s acquired separate tracts of land in the heart of these big trees, Doyle for a time operating a resort here that he called "Summer Home", and Hoskins simply hoping to save the big trees from being cut down. Another entrepreneur, Andrew Jackson Doty, with his wife Sarah built just outside the grove, not far from Hoskins' and Doyle's trees, a popular hotel that they named "Mountain Home", and this is the name by which the grove came to be known. Whereas many trees in the Mountain Home Grove were logged, those on the Doyle and Hoskins tracts were saved. Today Doyle's "Summer Home" is part of Balch Park, a Tulare County Park; and much of the surrounding forest, including Hoskins' stand of trees, are part of a California State conservation project known as the Mountain Home State Demonstration Forest. Although logging continued until 1956 in the unprotected parts of the grove, there has been no significant tree cutting since, except to mitigate fire danger and to protect the largest trees. The Mountain Home Grove on 15 April 2000 became part of the newly created

, under the management of the

U.S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

, with Balch Park continuing under jurisdiction of Tulare County, and the State Demonstration Forest remaining under control of the State of California. Hoskins and Doyle identified and named many of the big trees in the Mountain Home Grove, but a century later retired mathematics teacher Wendell Flint, with the help of photographer Mike Law, began searching for large sequoias that the early tree hunters had overlooked. They discovered, and subsequently measured and named, several sequoias that are now considered to be among the largest living trees on earth, including three trees in the Mountain Home Grove that are now included in the top forty largest trees in terms of volume. Many trees in the grove were destroyed or damaged by the

Castle Fire SQF Complex or Sequoia Complex was a complex of two of the August 2020 California lightning wildfires, burning in Sequoia National Forest and adjacent areas. Sparked on August 19, it included the Castle and Shotgun fires. As of January 5, 2021, ...

in 2020. It is estimated that between 31% and 42% of giant sequoias were destroyed in groves affected by the Castle Fire.

Noteworthy trees

Some of the noteworthy trees in Mountain Home Grove are listed below. * Adam tree: The 20th largest tree in the world. It was considered the largest tree in the Mountain Home Grove before Wendell Flint in the 1980s began looking for "big trees."
* Centennial Stump: Although said to be the largest tree in the world before it was cut down for an 1878 Centennial exhibition, recent measurements of the remaining stump show this to be an exaggeration. Nevertheless, a diameter of and circumference of on top of the stump indicate that if this tree were alive and standing today it would be one of the "big ones."
*

Euclid tree The Euclid Tree is a giant sequoia located in the Mountain Home Grove, one of several sequoia groves found in the southern Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada of California. It is the List of largest giant sequoias, 17th largest giant sequoia in the ...

: The 16th largest tree in the world. It was identified as being a large tree in 1989 by Wendell Flint. This tree is quite tall at for a giant sequoia, as the tops of most of the biggest trees have been damaged, and their heights reduced by lightning strikes. *

Genesis tree is a turn-based role-playing video game. It is followed by '' Legaia 2: Duel Saga''. Gameplay The player selects a target during battle. Each character performs on the phase based on status. The player sees corresponding vertical strikes. Each ...

: The 7th largest tree in the world before the Castle Fire, which caused damage to the tree. It was discovered in 1985, by Wendell Flint, co-author of the book ''To Find the Biggest Tree.''
. * Great Bonsai tree: This tree is described by Wendell Flint as ''"one of the greatest sequoia sights to be seen anywhere"'', due to several large limbs that reach close to the ground, and a commanding position of the tree on top of a pile of boulders. The tree was killed in the Castle Fire and burned for more than a year.
*

Hercules Tree Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the Gr ...

: Jesse Hoskins in the 1890s carved into the center of this tree a diameter by high room that the public can still enter and enjoy. Despite this room cut into its center, and the top of the tree having been burned by an ancient lightning strike, the Hercules tree is still alive and growing.
* Hollow Log: A naturally hollowed out log of a fallen giant sequoia, it was used as a shelter as early as 1856, and today is one of the main attractions of Balch County Park.
* Methuselah tree: The 27th largest tree in the world. This sequoia with a broken top has an unusually large diameter at the base, which rivals that of the better-known

Boole tree The Boole Tree is a giant sequoia in the Giant Sequoia National Monument, Fresno County, California. The Boole Tree is the eighth tallest sequoia in the world and is the largest in terms of base circumference at 112 feet. It is estimated to be mo ...

in the

Converse Basin Converse Basin Grove is a grove of giant sequoia (''Sequoiadendron giganteum'') trees in the Giant Sequoia National Monument in the Sierra Nevada, in Fresno County, California, 5 miles (8 km) north of General Grant Grove, just outside K ...

Grove.
* Summit Road tree: The 15th largest tree in the world is another big tree identified by Wendell Flint. The tree was damaged in the Castle Fire.

Description

History

Noteworthy trees

See also

References

Further reading