DR. RALPH W. CHANEY, Professor of Paleontology in the University of California, has made a thorough study of the fossil history of the redwoods. For some time it has been possible to trace redwood ancestry back as far as the Tertiary geological period. In 1925, Dr. Chaney, with the Central Asiatic Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History, found evidence of redwood in Manchuria, along with fossils of alders, oaks, and maples. Later he found evidence of a redwood forest region the history of which extends back to the Cretaceous period, which antedates the Tertiary by many millions of years.

PETRIFIED REDWOOD TREE AT CALISTOGA—"THE QUEEN OF THE FOREST" Courtesy of Gabriel Moulin

In his pamphlet, Redwoods of the Past, Dr. Chaney says:

One of the most significant places where fossil redwoods have been found in the Far North is on St. Lawrence Island, in the Bering Sea, midway between Alaska and Siberia. It is too cold and windy for trees of any sort to grow there today, but in long ages past there flourished upon it a forest as beautiful as that of the Redwood Belt [in California]. St. Lawrence Island is a portion of the land connection between Asia and North America, over which the redwood and many other plants have migrated from one continent to the other, along with the dinosaur, rhinoceros and other animals of the prehistoric past....

It now appears certain, in the light of accumulated facts, that in the period of the world's history known as the Tertiary, great forests of redwood flourished in many parts of the world. In America, redwood fossils have been found in Texas, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, California, Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and St. Lawrence Island. The Florissant Petrified Forest of Colorado, the Calistoga Petrified Forest of California, and the Specimen Ridge Petrified Forest in Yellowstone National Park are among the better known. The petrified forest at Calistoga has an abundance of redwood logs, which have been excavated from the surrounding beds in which they were buried. The petrified forest of Arizona, which is now a National Monument, is not composed of redwood. The consensus seems to be that the remains of the trees found there belong to the Araucaria Family, a family now native only to the Southern Hemisphere, where it consists of a group of cone-bearing trees including the Monkey Puzzle Tree, the Norfolk Island Pine, and the Kauri Pine. The first two of these trees are used in California as ornamentals.

Fig. 2. Fossil Distribution of Redwoods

In Europe, fossils of redwood have been found in France, Switzerland, Austria, Bohemia, Germany, England, and Spitzbergen. There is evidence that the redwoods were growing in Europe just prior to the first extensive glaciation. During the glacial periods, the Sequoia were forced to migrate southward toward the Mediterranean, where they perished. In America, glaciers and climatic changes caused the disappearance of all Redwoods except in western North America. Even the present unusual distribution of the Sierra Redwood in "groves" is thought by some authorities to be the work of glaciers.

About twelve species of fossil redwood have been discovered. The most common fossil redwood obtained is not easily distinguished from the living Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens). Because of its geological antiquity, however, it is usually given the name, Sequoia langsdorfii. No records of fossil Sierra Redwood (Sequoia gigantea) have been found. However, species of fossil redwoods cannot be definitely identified unless cones or leaves are found, so it may be that some of the fossil redwood logs represent the same species as the Sierra Redwood, or belong to closely related species.

FALLEN COAST REDWOOD TREE WITH HEMLOCKS GROWING OVER ITS TRUNK Courtesy of the American Forestry Association