Sequoia National Park was established in 1890 to save some of the big tree groves from destruction by the logging industry. Fallen trees were a primary attraction of the park.
When the conservationist John Muir visited the Sequoia grove in 1875, he named the grove the "Giant Forest." Many of the early battles against logging occurred here, until 1890 when the beleaguered giant Sequoias were finally saved from being reduced to a meadow of big stumps.
A popular fallen Sequoia attraction in the Giant Forest was the "Auto Log," created in 1917 when Stephen Mather, first director of the National Park Service, converted the giant log into a photo stop to amuse tourists.