SeeCalifornia.com

Tourists from around the globe come to California to see and experience the state’s redwood forests known to showcase the world’s tallest, biggest trees. Over 95% of the remaining old growth is in parks and preserves. Timber companies don’t have much old-growth left to cut — less than 5% of the original redwood forest area remains untouched and the redwood lumber produced today comes from second- or third- growth forests, i.e., forests that have already been logged once or twice.

While museums and festivals pay homage to lumberjacks in the golden era of logging, the industry hasn’t completely vanished. An example is Big Creek Lumber sawmill, one of the few remaining operational sawmills in California, and the only Redwood sawmill on the Central Coast. The facility on the bluffs above Highway 1 just north of Davenport has occupied the same location more than 50 years since 1964. That sawmill is hosting a customer appreciation event on July 25, 2015 in Santa Cruz.

Entertaining and educational experiences include seeing the Sierra Nevada Logging Museum in Arnold or the Samoa Cookhouse near Eureka where you can eat big lumberjack-style meals in the very place lumberjacks used to dine. The Cookhouse has been in operation 1893! A fun, hands-on opportunity exists at McCloud Lumberjack Fiesta July 24-26, 2015, where there’s even an amateur logging competition for kids.