The first documented sighting of the giant sequoia took place in the spring of 1852, when a hunter named Augustus T. Dowd, entered North Grove woods while chasing down a bear. The trees gained a lot of popularity and a lot of people came forward who wanted to make money out of these wonders of nature. In 1891 the giant "Mark Twain Tree" was cut down. A slice of its trunk was sent to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and another slice to the British Museum of Natural History in Kensington, London.