Andrew P. Hill - Big Basin

Big Basin

In 1899, Hill was commissioned by the English Wide World Magazine to photograph the scenery at what is now called Big Trees Grove at Felton in the Santa Cruz Mountains after a forest fire had been put out with wine from a local winery. He had an altercation with the landowner, who demanded payment for allowing photographs of the Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees and told him that they "were destined to become firewood and railroad ties." At the turn of the century only 25% of the old growth Redwood forests remained. Hill vowed to save the redwoods for posterity. In his memoirs, he wrote of this decision:

I was a little angry, and somewhat disgusted, with my reception at the Santa Cruz Big Trees. It made me think. There were still fifteen minutes until the train time. Just as the gate closed, the thought flashed through my mind that these trees, because of their size and antiquity, were among the natural wonders of the world, and should be saved for posterity. I said to myself, "I will start a campaign immediately to make a public park of the place." I argued that as I had been furnishing illustrations for a number of writers, whom I knew quite well, that there was a latent force, which, when awakened to a noble cause, would immediately respond, and perhaps arouse the press of the whole country. Thus was born my idea of saving the redwoods.

His attention shifted to Big Basin when it was suggested that the redwoods there were taller and more important. On May 18, 1900, while camping there, he and others founded the Sempervirens Club, which decided that Big Basin should become a public park. Many prominent locals supported the effort, including Santa Clara College's president, Robert E. Kenna, S.J., Stanford University's president, David Starr Jordan, the mayor of San Francisco, James D. Phelan (Kenna's nephew), and Carrie Stevens Walter, who later served as secretary of the club. After nearly two years of lobbying legislators in Sacramento, California, in which Father Kenna's persuasion of the Catholic members, who were then in the majority, was crucial, and after securing a monetary guarantee from Phelan, a bill that allocated $250,000 to purchase the Big Basin land passed. These were enormous sums of money at the time. Supporters secured a second $250,000 from private benefactors and, with the state, created California's first state park, California Redwood Park, now Big Basin Redwoods State Park and now encompassing over 18,000 acres (73 km2) of protected temperate rainforest lands. Father Kenna was appointed one of the first park commissioners. The park opened to camping in 1904. Hill spent summers there and photographed the trees until his death. He had a photography store there and in 1911 ran for park warden.