Chicago Stump

Chicago Stump is a 20-foot remnant of a giant sequoia in Converse Basin Grove, about five miles north of Grant Grove in Sequoia National Forest. It sits outside Kings Canyon National Park, but makes a worthwhile side trip if you want to see the story of sequoia logging made physical. Come for the history and the scale of the stump; this isn't a walk among old-growth trees.

The easy half-mile loop skirts a meadow ringed by young sequoias before reaching the stump. The contrast is the point: one huge survivor of the logging era, with the grove growing back around it. Give yourself time to read the interpretive boards and look at the stump from different sides.

The tree was once called General Noble. Sections cut from it were reassembled at Chicago's 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, where people who couldn't believe one tree could be so large called it the “California Hoax.” The big stump left in the grove is still a remarkable sight, and the photos from its cutting and transport make the history feel less abstract. The exact year it was felled is disputed, so the fair is the safer date to remember.

Converse Basin was heavily logged in the late 1800s and had been thoroughly cut over by 1908. Today, young sequoias fill in around the old stumps. Those stumps also preserve tree rings that help researchers study past weather, fires and droughts. The grove's oldest known stump is a little over 3,200 years old; that age has not been established for Chicago Stump itself.

From Grant Grove, take Highway 180 north to the Converse turnoff, then follow Forest Road 13S55 about half a mile into the grove. The approach is unpaved and can be rough; aim for dry conditions, since the short walk is the easy part of this outing. There's no potable water here, and restroom availability at this trailhead isn't confirmed. Keep dogs on a six-foot leash.