Adam Tree
Giant sequoia in Mountain Home Grove, California. 20th largest giant sequoia.
The Adam Tree is a giant sequoia located in Mountain Home Grove, a sequoia grove in Giant Sequoia National Monument in the Sierra Nevada of California. It is the 21st largest giant sequoia in the world, and could be considered the 20th largest depending on how badly Ishi Giant atrophied during the Rough Fire in 2015.
Description
The Adam Tree was named around 1884 by Jesse Hoskins, who was also responsible for the room cut out of the Hercules tree, which is also in the Mountain Home Grove. Wendell Flint and Mike Law measured the Adam Tree in 1978 and calculated a volume of 35,017 cubic feet (991.6 m3), with a girth of 95 feet (29.0 m). It was considered the largest tree in the grove until 1985, when Flint, with the help of photographer Mike Law, measured and named the nearby Genesis Tree and demonstrated that it was larger. Three trees in the grove – the Genesis, Summit Road and Euclid trees – are presently considered to be larger than the Adam Tree.
Dimensions
The dimensions of the Adam Tree as measured by Wendell D. Flint. The calculated volume ignores burns.
See also
List of largest giant sequoias
List of individual trees
Mountain Home Grove
References
Further reading
Flint, Wendell D.; Law, Mike (2002). To Find the Biggest Tree (2nd ed.).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Adam Tree” is giant sequoia in Mountain Home Grove, California. 20th largest giant sequoia. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Adam, Tree and Giant, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “giant sequoia in Mountain Home Grove, California. 20th largest giant sequoia” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4678611. Authority coordinates are 36.243, -118.673. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2015, 1884, 1978 and 1985.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Adam Tree”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Adam Tree primary sources, Adam Tree archive and Adam research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Adam Tree”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Adam Tree” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.