Sempervirens Club, Photo by Andrew P. Hill

Our History & Legacy

It all began with a tree…

In 1899, San Jose photographer Andrew P. Hill was on assignment in Northern California’s Santa Cruz Mountains. His photographs were to accompany a news story about a recent fire in the redwoods that had been put out using wine from a local vineyard. While Hill was photographing a very large redwood tree, the owner of the grove stopped him, accused Hill of trespassing and demanded the negatives. Hill refused, and though he hadn’t thought of himself as a conservationist, returned to San Jose and started a campaign to save the coast redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains and make them accessible to the public.

At the time, logging of the coast redwoods was moving at a frantic pace to meet the demand for redwood lumber to build the new towns and cities of a booming California. Concerned that the redwood trees of the Santa Cruz Mountains would be lost forever, Hill, with the help of Stanford University’s President David Starr Jordan convened a meeting of scientists and other influential people at the Stanford University Library to discuss what could be done to protect the redwoods. At this meeting, a surveying committee was appointed, headed by Hill and Carrie Stevens Walter from the San Jose Woman’s Club. They went camping along the banks of Sempervirens Creek in what is now Big Basin Redwoods State Park and then and there formed the Sempervirens Club. The Club committed to lobby for the protection of the redwoods and for the creation of a public park at Big Basin. They passed a hat, collected $32 to finance their efforts, and launched a fundraising and lobbying campaign to achieve their goal.

For over two years, the Sempervirens Club members campaigned for the creation of a state redwood park in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Skillful lobbying by Hill, Santa Clara College (now Santa Clara University) President Father Robert Kenna, S.J., San Francisco attorney D.M. Delmas, and Harry Wells, editor of the San Jose Mercury News, convinced the California Legislature to pass a bill in 1901 allowing for the creation of the park. In 1902 the efforts of Sempervirens Club paid off; the state acquired 3,800 acres of ancient redwood forests in Big Basin for the people of California—preserving coast redwoods for the first time, anywhere. California Redwood Park, later named Big Basin Redwoods State Park, was the first park established in California in the current state park system.

Over the years Big Basin Redwoods State Park became a highly popular recreation area—so popular that campers were often turned away from the park for lack of room. In 1968, the Big Basin area was being threatened with severe ecological damage from subdivision and development on over 750 acres of private land in key locations within the boundaries of the Waddell Creek watershed.

Recognizing that Big Basin would remain threatened unless the greater regional ecology was preserved, a group of local conservationists — including Tony Look, Dorothy Varian, Howard King, George Collins, and Doris Leonard — joined together to work toward establishing a new state park at Castle Rock, 14 miles northeast of Big Basin, and protecting the entire Waddell Creek watershed. A state park was created at Castle Rock in 1968. The group renewed the charter of the original Sempervirens Club and changed the name to Sempervirens Fund to reflect its new emphasis as a fundraising organization. A new era of conservation had begun.



Our History & Legacy It all began with a tree… In 1899, San Jose photographer Andrew P. Hill was on assignment in Northern California’s Santa Cruz Mountains. His photographs were to accompany a news story about a recent fire in the redwoods that had been put out using wine from a local vineyard. While Hill was photographing a very large redwood tree, the owner of the grove stopped him, accused Hill of trespassing and demanded the negatives. Hill refused, and though he hadn’t thought of himself as a conservationist, returned to San Jose and started a campaign to save the coast redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains and make them accessible to the public. At the time, logging of the coast redwoods was moving at a frantic pace to meet the demand for redwood lumber to build the new towns and cities of a booming California. Concerned that the redwood trees of the Santa Cruz Mountains would be lost forever, Hill, with the help of Stanford University’s President David Starr Jordan convened a meeting of scientists and other influential people at the Stanford University Library to discuss what could be done to protect the redwoods. At this meeting, a surveying committee was appointed, headed by Hill and Carrie Stevens Walter from the San Jose Woman’s Club. They went camping along the banks of Sempervirens Creek in what is now Big Basin Redwoods State Park and then and there formed the Sempervirens Club. The Club committed to lobby for the protection of the redwoods and for the creation of a public park at Big Basin. They passed a hat, collected $32 to finance their efforts, and launched a fundraising and lobbying campaign to achieve their goal. For over two years, the Sempervirens Club members campaigned for the creation of a state redwood park in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Skillful lobbying by Hill, Santa Clara College (now Santa Clara University) President Father Robert Kenna, S.J., San Francisco attorney D.M. Delmas, and Harry Wells, editor of the San Jose Mercury News, convinced the California Legislature to pass a bill in 1901 allowing for the creation of the park. In 1902 the efforts of Sempervirens Club paid off; the state acquired 3,800 acres of ancient redwood forests in Big Basin for the people of California—preserving coast redwoods for the first time, anywhere. California Redwood Park, later named Big Basin Redwoods State Park, was the first park established in California in the current state park system. Over the years Big Basin Redwoods State Park became a highly popular recreation area—so popular that campers were often turned away from the park for lack of room. In 1968, the Big Basin area was being threatened with severe ecological damage from subdivision and development on over 750 acres of private land in key locations within the boundaries of the Waddell Creek watershed. Recognizing that Big Basin would remain threatened unless the greater regional ecology was preserved, a group of local conservationists — including Tony Look, Dorothy Varian, Howard King, George Collins, and Doris Leonard — joined together to work toward establishing a new state park at Castle Rock, 14 miles northeast of Big Basin, and protecting the entire Waddell Creek watershed. A state park was created at Castle Rock in 1968. The group renewed the charter of the original Sempervirens Club and changed the name to Sempervirens Fund to reflect its new emphasis as a fundraising organization. A new era of conservation had begun.