My father was raised in the redwood forests of California...


"In 1991, the Dyerville Giant, as it is known, was thought to be the tallest tree in the world, topping out at 369.2 feet. And then, in a blustery March storm, it blew over, taking four other redwoods with it like toppling dominoes. The crash was so deafening that people in Weott, the nearest town, thought a freight train had derailed. It caused the needle to jump on a seismograph 10 miles away.

"When it went down," said Stockton, "it was like losing a member of the family." These days he rushes out after every big storm to reassure himself that the park's other giants are still standing.

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An ultrasecret giant

"The silence here is almost deafening," said Stockton as he led Hartley and me over, around and under a jumble of fallen redwoods near Bull Creek. He was taking us to the ultrasecret location of what until two years ago had been thought to be the world's tallest tree - a 370.5-foot behemoth known as the Stratosphere Giant."


The Stratosphere Giant is the tallest measured, but there are a few others recently dicovered that are (at least) as high. Official measurments were pending at the time of this article.

Will you settle for "tallest angiosperm?