L. W. Currey, Inc.

(California; Santa Cruz County; Big Basin; Redwoods; Sequoia Sempervirens) Sempervirens Club of California, The, Charles Wesley Reed, President, Carrie Stevens Walter, Secretary. "WOODMAN SPARE THAT TREE" SEQUOIA SEMPERVIRENS OF CALIFORNIA[.] SAVE THE CALIFORNIA REDWOODS [cover title]. [San Francisco: The Sempervirens Club of California, 1901.]. 19.5x20 cm, folded to 19.5x 10 cm, pp. [1-24] (not paginated), double columns, 25 illustrations (including two cover illustrations) from photographs by San Jose artist and photographer Andrew Putnam Hill, 1 map, pictorial self wrappers, stapled. First edition. The beginning of the movement to establish California's first state park. A detailed proposal to create a Redwood Park issued by The Sempervirens Club of California. The proposal, dated 8 January 1901, includes a draft act and a "petition to the Legislature of the State of California to create a California Redwood Park." The area selected for preservation was Big Basin, a fourteen thousand acre tract of land lying in the northern part of Santa Cruz county surrounding a virgin stand of redwoods threatened by logging. The first organized effort to preserve Big Basin was in the form of a meeting of academics and conservationists held at Stanford University 1 May 1900. Two expeditions to the Basin followed, the first in May 1900, the second in December 1900. The Sempervirens Club was organized in "Camp Sempervirens" on 19 May 1900 by the first expedition, "to work systematically for the reservation" of Big Basin. Big Basin Redwoods State Park, established in 1902, is California's oldest state park. "Its original 3,800 acres have been increased over the years to over 18,000 acres. It is part of the Northern California coastal forests ecoregion and is home to the largest continuous stand of ancient coast redwoods south of San Francisco. It contains 10,800 acres of old-growth forest as well as recovering redwood forest, with mixed conifer, oaks, chaparral and riparian habitats. The full-page map is "Map of the Big Basin and Vicinity," showing rail service from the Bay Area to Felton, Boulder Creek and Santa Cruz. The printer's imprint on the outer front panel reads: "Sunset Photo-Engraving Co. / Sunset Press." See Carrie Stevens Walter, "The Preservation of the Big Basin," The Overland Monthly, October 1902, vol. XL, no. 4, pp. [353]–361. Not in Rocq (1970). A touch of rubbing along the fold of the outer leaf, a nearly fine copy. A lovely copy of a seminal document in the campaign to preserve California's Redwood forests. OCLC reports a copy at University of California, Santa Cruz. (#170351).

Price: $1,250.00