Visalia is a small town with few attractions but despite this gets a lot of visitors throughout the year due to its proximity to Sequoia National Park. This relationship between the town and the park is as old as the park itself and perhaps older. What better way to commemorate that than bringing down a sequoia to the city?
The Sequoia Legacy Tree was just three years old when it was planted near the Visalia post office in 1936. It was placed there by Guy Hopping and Nate Levy, the park superintendent and town postmaster respectively, as a symbol of cooperation between the two locations.
Initially there were two trees, one on each side of the post office. They were planted in special mulch from the mountain and irrigated with water pipes to ensure proper humidity. Nobody knew how long the trees could survive, as they were far from their preferred habitat. In 1980, the first one was removed as it was in poor health, but the second tree held on quite long after.
In July 2024, Visalia announced that the tree would need to come down. Despite special care from arborists, most of the tree’s needles have turned brown. The town is searching for something that can replace the sequoia at this site to commemorate Visalia’s connection to the nearby forest.
