Redwood National Park, in northern California, is in the huge forest of redwood trees that grows along the Pacific Coast from central California to southern Oregon. The world’s tallest living trees, redwoods that rise over 370 feet (113 meters) high, are in the park. The park has 37 miles (60 kilometers) of scenic coastline.
Coastal redwood forests have flourished in northern California for 20 million years. Redwood trees are known for their straight, reddish-brown trunks and their great height. Some of the park’s oldest trees are about 2,000 years old. Other tree species in the park include the coast Douglas-fir, Sitka spruce, and white alder. Wildlife in the park includes black bears, bobcats, deer, red squirrels, salamanders, frogs, bats, and a variety of birds.
The Yurok Native American people and their ancestors lived amid the redwood forests for thousands of years before large numbers of European Americans arrived in the mid-1800’s. Many homes of the Indigenous people were constructed of planks made from fallen redwoods. During the California Gold Rush , thousands of miners and other tradespeople came to northern California and pushed the Yurok off their ancestral lands. Large-scale logging soon began in the region. Most of the original stands of redwood trees were cut down by the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
In the early 1900’s, conservationists began a campaign to save the remaining redwood forests. They collected donations of money and land from concerned citizens and lumber companies. In the 1920’s, California established three state parks to preserve important redwood stands. Redwood logging on private lands in the region continued. In 1968, Congress established Redwood National Park, preserving some of the last untouched redwoods. The three state parks lie within its boundaries. Since 1994, the parks have been managed jointly by state and federal agencies as the Redwood National and State Parks. For the park’s area, see National Park System (table: National parks) .
