Twain used dogs as his muse up until the end. Weeks before he died, Twain wrote about approaching heaven’s gate: “Leave your dog outside. Heaven goes by favor.
If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.
Mark Twain was so famous a giant Sequoia Redwood was named after him.
https://www.monumentaltrees.com/en/trees/giantsequoia/history/
It tells a lot about the mentality of the time. Now the felling of the largest giant sequoias sounds like a sad and respectless waste but is understandable in the zeitgeist of the 19th century.
Think about this: in that time of limited communication a lot of stories reached the American-European east coast of the U.S. from the "Far West" during the Californian gold rush. Massive gold mountains! Gigantic trees! Huge waterfalls where the water runs to the top! The European immigrants quickly developed a "first see, then believe" mentality.
In that period there also was an unlimited optimism: by the large technological advances of the time the first railroads were constructed, large bridges, ships, and the first skyscrapers were built, canals were dug. For the first time, men got control over nature and was able to shape its environment. The fact that now it was possible for men to fell down such large trees was for some a moral obligation to do so.
In that period there also was an unlimited optimism: by the large technological advances of the time the first railroads were constructed, large bridges, ships, and the first skyscrapers were built, canals were dug. For the first time, men got control over nature and was able to shape its environment. The fact that now it was possible for men to fell down such large trees was for some a moral obligation to do so.
A number of old growth trees were felled exactly to prove their existence (and to make money in the process). In 1891, for example, the "Mark Twain Tree" was felled. A slice of its trunk was sent to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and another slice to the British Museum of Natural History in Kensington, London.
Consciousness about long term preservation, that men can actually change the entire climate of our planet and the responsibility that comes with it, and the awareness that the earth's capacity to handle men's hunger for destruction and waste disposal is limited only came later.
Some of the largest living things on the planet are found in California's Yosemite National Park. Yes, we're talking the giant sequoias in Yosemite Park. The giant trees were on this earth long before we got here - and will be here (hopefully) long after we're gone. The sequoias can live to be 3,000 years old and can grow to be 300 feet high and 100 feet in circumference. Seeing them in person makes you feel like you're in a Lord of the Rings movie. These trees need to say thanks to President Abraham Lincoln. He signed the Yosemite Land Grant bill on June 30, 1864. This bill set a precedent for the preservation of the our country's wilderness.
https://historydaily.org/42-unbelievable-retro-photos/32
Some of the largest living things on the planet are found in California's Yosemite National Park. Yes, we're talking the giant sequoias in Yosemite Park. The giant trees were on this earth long before we got here - and will be here (hopefully) long after we're gone. The sequoias can live to be 3,000 years old and can grow to be 300 feet high and 100 feet in circumference. Seeing them in person makes you feel like you're in a Lord of the Rings movie. These trees need to say thanks to President Abraham Lincoln. He signed the Yosemite Land Grant bill on June 30, 1864. This bill set a precedent for the preservation of the our country's wilderness.
https://historydaily.org/42-unbelievable-retro-photos/32
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