The Jerry Garcia-Sempervirens Fund Connection

As a boy, Jerry Garcia lost his finger in the Lompico redwoods.

Aug. 1, 2017 would have marked the 75th birthday of local legend Jerry Garcia. Here at Sempervirens Fund, we long heard rumors that the Grateful Dead had jammed somewhere on the Lompico Headwaters property back in the day.

Sempervirens Fund purchased the Lompico Headwaters property in 2006, saving it from being harvested by timber interests. A year later, we transformed the 425 acres of land into the pioneering Lompico Forest Carbon Project.

Although there is no evidence the Grateful Dead ever played Lompico, the truth of the rumor is far stranger.

Garcia’s family owned a house in Lompico. While vacationing in the redwoods in 1951, Garcia’s older brother Clifford accidentally lopped his 4-year-old brother’s right-middle finger off at the knuckle while chopping wood.

Even more macabre is the fact that the finger of the boy who would grow up to find international fame as a psychedelic icon and Hall of Fame guitarist…was never found.

That’s right. Jerry Garcia’s finger is still wandering around out there in the redwoods somewhere.

Happy Birthday to a Santa Cruz Mountain legend.

To learn more about Sempervirens Fund’s pioneering forest carbon project in Lompico, click here.