Sempervirens Club, Photo by Andrew P. Hill

Our History & Legacy

It all began with a tree…

In 1899, San Jose photographer Andrew P. Hill was on assignment in Northern California’s Santa Cruz Mountains. His photographs were to accompany a news story about a recent fire in the redwoods that had been put out using wine from a local vineyard. While Hill was photographing a very large redwood tree, the owner of the grove stopped him, accused Hill of trespassing and demanded the negatives. Hill refused, and though he hadn’t thought of himself as a conservationist, returned to San Jose and started a campaign to save the coast redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains and make them accessible to the public.

At the time, logging of the coast redwoods was moving at a frantic pace to meet the demand for redwood lumber to build the new towns and cities of a booming California. Concerned that the redwood trees of the Santa Cruz Mountains would be lost forever, Andrew P. Hill gathered a small group of friends and conservationists to protect the remaining redwoods. They went camping along the banks of Sempervirens Creek in what is now Big Basin Redwoods State Park and then and there formed the Sempervirens Club. The Club committed to lobby for the protection of the redwoods and for the creation of a public park at Big Basin. They passed a hat and collected $32 to finance their campaign. After two years of intense lobbying and fundraising, Sempervirens Club prevailed. In 1902, 3,800 acres of ancient redwood forest in Big Basin were set aside for the people of California — preserving coast redwoods for the first time, anywhere. Big Basin Redwoods State Park was the first park established in California under the new state park system.

Today, Sempervirens Fund — renamed as such in 1968 — is still motivated by the passion and resolve that inspired Andrew P. Hill and the Sempervirens Club more than a century ago. Over the years, Sempervirens Fund has protected 25,000 acres of redwood forest land throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains.



Our History & Legacy It all began with a tree… In 1899, San Jose photographer Andrew P. Hill was on assignment in Northern California’s Santa Cruz Mountains. His photographs were to accompany a news story about a recent fire in the redwoods that had been put out using wine from a local vineyard. While Hill was photographing a very large redwood tree, the owner of the grove stopped him, accused Hill of trespassing and demanded the negatives. Hill refused, and though he hadn’t thought of himself as a conservationist, returned to San Jose and started a campaign to save the coast redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains and make them accessible to the public. At the time, logging of the coast redwoods was moving at a frantic pace to meet the demand for redwood lumber to build the new towns and cities of a booming California. Concerned that the redwood trees of the Santa Cruz Mountains would be lost forever, Andrew P. Hill gathered a small group of friends and conservationists to protect the remaining redwoods. They went camping along the banks of Sempervirens Creek in what is now Big Basin Redwoods State Park and then and there formed the Sempervirens Club. The Club committed to lobby for the protection of the redwoods and for the creation of a public park at Big Basin. They passed a hat and collected $32 to finance their campaign. After two years of intense lobbying and fundraising, Sempervirens Club prevailed. In 1902, 3,800 acres of ancient redwood forest in Big Basin were set aside for the people of California — preserving coast redwoods for the first time, anywhere. Big Basin Redwoods State Park was the first park established in California under the new state park system. Today, Sempervirens Fund — renamed as such in 1968 — is still motivated by the passion and resolve that inspired Andrew P. Hill and the Sempervirens Club more than a century ago. Over the years, Sempervirens Fund has protected 25,000 acres of redwood forest land throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains.