Imagine an oak tree. They can grow up to 100 feet tall at their maximum and up to four feet wide. Now imagine a tree three times the height of an oak tree and six times the width of an oak.

It seems unfathomable right?

Redwood Trees in California can reach higher than a 30-foot skyscraper. They are the tallest trees in the world, and they have been around for over 2000 years.  They used to exist all throughout the northern hemisphere, but now they exist only in a 450-mile region running from central California to the southern Oregon region.

One of the largest types of redwood trees are the giant sequoias.  The trunks of these trees are approximately 52,500 cubic feet, which is roughly equivalent to 21,800 150-pound humans.

Now, that’s a big tree!

A tunnel was cut through one of the redwoods, the Wawona Tunnel Tree, as a tourist attraction. The tunnel was cut through this famous sequoia in 1888 but, unfortunately, in 1969 the tree fell after living for about 2,300 years. It had stood for 88 summers once a tunnel was cut through it before it fell down from a rough winter, because it was full of heavy snow which had a weakening effect on the tunnel.  The Wawona Tree had a height of 227 feet and a width of 26 feet.

Commonly confused as the same tree, redwood trees and giant sequoias are actually different.  While both are classified as Sequoias, redwoods are the taller of the two and giant sequoias are the largest and more dramatic of the two.

Redwood trees are like dinosaurs. Most tree species live about one hundred to a few hundred years; however redwoods can live to be over 3,000 years old.

While this topic may seem superfluous, these trees have been a long and important part of history, which will continue to grow and have a lasting impact on every person who breathes.