A Marin County state park's famed tree is no longer standing after a Thursday fire.
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California State Parks officials announced on Thursday that Samuel P. Taylor State Park’s Pioneer Tree collapsed after being "fully engulfed in flames" the same morning. Nobody was injured, and the fire didn't force any evacuations.
The Marin County Fire Department said Thursday night that the cause is unknown, and the fire required "extensive" clean-up throughout the day.
Pioneer Tree’s collapse forced its eponymous trail, as well as the Cross Marin trail, to close "until further notice," according to state parks officials. California State Parks didn't respond to KCBS Radio’s emailed requirement prior to publication.
Samuel P. Taylor State Park first opened in 1946, 60 years after its namesake’s death. The land was home to the indigenous Coast Miwok people for thousands of years, but many died of disease introduced by European settlers, while others were killed or forced into servitude.
Taylor purchased 100 acres of land in Marin County, opening Pioneer Paper Mill – California’s first – in 1856 and Camp Taylor – one of the state's first recreational campgrounds – in the late 1870s, according to a state parks history. His family later lost the land, which Elizabeth Rodgers sold in 1945 after Marin County officials turned down her donation in 1921. The Marin Conservation League proposed in 1935 that the county purchase the land for recreation, 11 years before it opened as a state park.
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