Welch Big Trees Grove

Welch Big Trees Grove was established after Joseph Warren Welch Sr. purchased 350 acres of old-growth redwood forest in 1867 (according to the Henry Cowell Redwoods SP), or 1869 (according to Santa Cruz Trains), saving the trees from being logged. As early as 1862, the special nature of the grove was noted in the Santa Cruz Sentinel. After Eben Bennett's toll road (now part of Highway 9) was completed in 1868, access to the Big Trees was via a road to a ford across the San Lorenzo River. That route remains today as "Old Big Trees Road", taking off from Highway 9 on the west side of the river, next to the "Toll House".

A suspension pedestrian bridge was later added above the ford, as shown in the 1905 postcard image. The card caption indicates that, by that date, someone named Hopkins owned the grove. This card may have been printed when [M. C.] Hopkins first bought the property, because a Newspapers.com search for "Hopkins Big Trees" in the Santa Cruz Sentinel found no results before 1905.

After the Santa Cruz & Felton (SC&F) Railroad was built in 1874, a stop was created at the Big Trees road. In 1879, however, the South Pacific Coast Railroad (SPC) routed its tracks along Welch's eastern property line and built a Big Trees stop, where Roaring Camp is today. Crossing the river to the south of the Big Trees station to join the old tracks for the remainder of the trip into Santa Cruz, the tracks on the west side north of that junction became an orphan spur. Santa Cruz Trains notes that the "Old Felton" station closed in 1926, but it's not clear when rail service to the west-side Big Trees station ended. What was once the eastern Welch property line now divides the State Park from the privately-owned Roaring Camp.