Meet the Giant Sequoia, the ‘Super Tree’ Built to Withstand Fire

Giant sequoias are found only in about 73 groves scattered along the western slopes of California’s Sierra Nevada, from Tahoe National Forest to the Giant Sequoia National Monument northeast of Bakersfield, Calif. President Abraham Lincoln first set aside the Grizzly Giant and the other sequoias of Mariposa Grove as federally protected in 1864, eight years before the designation of the country’s first national park.