Muir Woods National Monument and the Fight to Save the Redwoods
By | January 6, 2023
A series of events that culminated 115 years ago today, on January 9, 1908, resulted in the preservation of nearly 250 acres of old-growth redwood trees and the establishment of Muir Woods National Monument. The stand of giant redwood trees north of San Francisco managed to remain intact when the California logging industry swept through and destroyed more than two million acres of these trees but was facing a new threat when a proposed dam. Here is the story of how one man, a politician on the rise, stepped in to save the trees.
The Redwoods of California
The magnificent coastal redwood trees began to take root in California about 20 million years ago. More than 13,000 years ago, indigenous people of the region made their homes among the trees. When European and American settlers came to California, the giant trees were viewed as a commodity to be harvested. The logging industry in California in the 1800s flourished thanks to the massive trees. An estimated two million acres of redwood trees were cut down, nearly all of the redwoods of California. The region where Muir Woods is now, which was called Redwood Canyon at that time, was not harvested when the rest of the redwoods were logged. The area was inaccessible to loggers in the San Francisco Bay area.
William Kent
William Kent was a politician on the rise in California at the turn of the 1900s. Although he was born in Chicago, his father, who earned his fortune in the Chicago meatpacking industry, moved his family to California in 1871. The Kent family owned more than 800 acres. After he was educated at Yale on the East Coast, he returned to California, married, and got involved in federal politics. William Kent is the hero of our story because of the work he did to protect the redwood trees, however, he was a complicated and somewhat controversial political figure in his day. When he served in Congress, he advocated for a number of anti-Asian policies, including barring Asians from entering the country and banning Asian Americans from owning land, voting, and seeking U.S. citizenship.
Conservation Activities
In 1905, William Kent and his wife, Elizabeth, were involved in conservation activities in California. Kent recognized that Redwood Canyon was one of the last remaining groves of old-growth redwood trees in the state. In 1905, Kent and his wife purchased 611 acres of the canyon. This purchase cost him $45,000, a princely sum in 1905. Kent had to get a bank loan to make the purchase even though he was quite wealthy. When Elizabeth Kent questioned her husband’s purchase, he reportedly quipped, “If we lose all the money we have and save these trees, it will be worthwhile.”
