No nobler monuments of our love for beauty can be erected than to preserve these oldest and biggest trees in the world and these tallest trees in America. – French Strother, “Saving the Big Trees: The Need of Further National, Stat

Gigantic second and third growth trees are found in the redwoods, forming magnificent temple-like circles around charred ruins more than a thousand years old. – John Muir, “The American Forests,” August 1897

[T]he ground beneath them is a garden of fresh, exuberant ferns, lilies, gaultheria, and rhododendron. – John Muir, “The American Forests,” August 1897

The redwood is one of the few conifers that sprout from the stump and roots, and it declares itself willing to begin immediately to repair the damage of the lumberman and also that of the forest-burner. – John Muir, “The American Forests,” August 1897