Here, by the abominable magic of barter and trade, the dismembered
tree was transmuted into dollars and cents and returned to Humboldt
County to assist John Cardigan in his task of hewing an empire out of
a wilderness.
At a period in the history of California when the treasures of the
centuries were to be had for the asking or the taking, John Cardigan
chose that which others elected to cast away. For him the fertile
wheat and fruit-lands of California's smiling valleys, the dull
placer gold in her foot-hill streams, and the free grass, knee deep,
on her cattle and sheep-ranges held no lure; for he had been first
among the Humboldt redwoods and had come under the spell of the
vastness and antiquity, the majesty and promise of these epics of a
planet. He was a big man with a great heart and the soul of a
dreamer, and in such a land as this it was fitting he should take his
stand.
In that wasteful day a timber-claim was not looked upon as valuable.
The price of a quarter-section was a pittance in cash and a brief
residence in a cabin constructed on the claim as evidence of good
faith to a government none too exacting in the restrictions with
which it hedged about its careless dissipation of the heritage of
posterity. Hence, because redwood timber-claims were easy to acquire,
many men acquired them; but when the lure of greener pastures gripped
these men and the necessity for ready money oppressed, they were wont
to sell their holdings for a few hundred dollars.
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