Cultural Landscape Inventory Lady Bird Johnson Grove Historic District, Redwood National Park

McCardle, Kevin; Babalis, Timothy; McPherson, Megan; Rehnberg, Nicole; Torkelson, Jacob

The Lady Bird Johnson Grove is a grove of old-growth coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) within Redwood National Park located south and west of Little Lost Man Creek. The grove was the site of the formal dedication of Redwood National Park, held on November 25, 1968. The event was attended by First Lady Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson and her staff, as well as numerous dignitaries and NPS executive staff. Nine months later, on August 27, 1969, another ceremony was held at the same location dedicating the grove to Lady Bird Johnson in honor of her important role in conservation, including the establishment of Redwood National Park. President Richard M. Nixon presided over this event, which was attended by the president’s family, former President Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson and their family, California Governor Ronald Reagan, as well as other dignitaries and NPS executive staff. In both instances, a clearing at the center of the grove was enlarged to accommodate a stage, podium, and seating for a limited number of guests. An abandoned segment of Bald Hills Road was cleared from the existing Bald Hills Road to access the site. The built features constructed for the ceremonies at the dedication site were temporary and have not survived. Although not constructed a redwood log, used as a photographers’ platform for news reporters covering the ceremony, remains, along with the abandoned road used as a trail and the cleared area at the center of the grove. Subsequent to the 1969 event, a bronze memorial plaque was mounted on a masonry pedestal at the site of the dedication ceremony. Later improvements included construction of a nature loop trail around the grove along the upper ridge with keyed interpretive markers, a parking lot and picnic area on Bald Hills Road, a laminate wood pedestrian bridge connecting the parking lot with the grove, and a continuation of the lower trail to Barry Glen on U.S. Highway 101. None of the later improvements were directly associated with the ceremonies of 1968 and 1969. The grove itself has remained largely unaltered, however, and still and continues to convey much the same feeling and significance to present day visitors as it did to the dignitaries who attended the two dedicatory ceremonies a half a century ago.