In the days when getting to the sequoia groves was more difficult than it is today, several of the big trees were cut down and shipped back east so that they could be seen by more people. This tree was chopped down in 1875 to be displayed at the America's Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. A sixteen-foot portion of the tree was sliced off, split into sections and hauled out of the forest by bull team. Unfortunately, because of the tree's great size and the obvious lines where the pieces had been reassembled, the tree was laughed out of the exposition as the "California Hoax."
