People first started coming to the sequoia forests in large numbers
shortly after the end of the Civil War. The General Grant Tree
was discovered in 1862 by Joseph Hardin Thomas and named in 1867
by Lucretia Baker. Five years later, on March 1, 1872, Ulysses
Grant, now president of the United States, signed the bill designating
Yellowstone as the world's first national park. The area around
the Grant Grove of giant sequoias was set aside in 1890 as General
Grant National Park. (Yosemite National Park was created in the
same piece of legislation.) In 1940, General Grant was included
in the newly created Kings Canyon National Park.
