The Big Round

A giant sequoia that sprouted as Julius Caesar’s reign over Rome was nearing its end in 44 BCE stood in Tulare County for more than 2,000 years until a windstorm felled it in 1961. Nicknamed “Doris,” the massive tree provided the large cross-section known as The Big Round. Organizers of the 1961 Los Angeles County Fair, planning a new attraction called “The Court of the Redwoods,” wanted a display on California’s biggest trees featuring a grove of living redwoods, John Svenson’s redwood sculpture “Ranchera,” and a giant sequoia cross-section. After using a scale model, fair managers determined that the round needed to be 16 feet in diameter, then urgently contacted forestry organizations to find a tree large enough. Workers from California’s State Department of Forestry, the Conservation Corps, and Tulare County spent weeks cutting, loading, and transporting the cross-section, which arrived only a few days before the fair opened, with installation finished just hours before the first fairgoers arrived.

Pomona, California · United States