Since 1999, tree-loving pilgrims have trekked to Montgomery Woods State Reserve northwest of Ukiah in hopes of gazing upon the world's tallest living tree.
Few actually got up close to the strapping prince of a redwood called the Mendocino Tree, largely because the location of the 367.5-foot-tall giant never was officially marked.
Even the handful of people who knew where the tree grows could barely distinguish it from two dozen or more other ancient redwoods standing 350 feet or taller within an 80-acre ancient redwood grove inside the state reserve's boundaries.
Still, the tallest-tree designation drew thousands of new visitors to isolated Montgomery Woods, 12 miles northwest of Ukiah just beyond the historic Orrs Hot Spring resort. So fascinated were tree lovers worldwide that a Japanese company once proposed to run helicopter tours over Montgomery Woods so the tall tree could be pointed out.
Alas, the Mendocino Tree's reign is over.
Tree-measuring experts have decreed it no longer holds the title of being the world's tallest, even though it's grown a half-foot taller, measuring most recently at 368.1 feet.
Instead, according to the experts, the honor of being the world's tallest now belongs to the Stratosphere Giant, an ancient redwood in Humboldt County's Rockefeller Forest whose towering height of 369.5 feet was first discovered by a Santa Rosa man in 2000.
Chris Atkins since has used a laser range finder to determine the Stratosphere's height, then a mere 1.4 feet taller than Mendocino Tree. Still, it was enough to topple Mendocino Tree from the Guinness Book of Records in 2004, after only five years.
Admirers can take consolation in the fact that Mendocino Tree remains among the five tallest trees growing on Earth.
Atkins and others said the new record holder had never been measured before.
Since Atkins' discovery, Stratosphere Giant also has grown. It was remeasured in fall 2004 at 370.2 feet.
For comparison, that's about five stories higher than the Statue of Liberty in New York.
Atkins stumbled across the new champion in July 2000 while hiking through majestic Rockefeller Forest, part of Humboldt Redwoods State Park. At 10,000 acres, Rockefeller is the single largest tract of ancient redwoods left in the world.
It took the Guinness Book of Records, however, until 2004 to recognize Atkins' findings.
"It was one of the most exciting moments of my life," said Atkins, who is credited with perfecting on-ground laser measurements of trees.
The Stratosphere Giant is not marked, nor will it be, just like the Mendocino Tree, state park officials say. Arborists fear the tallest-tree designation will draw too many people, who could damage one of nature's true wonders.
In the 1970s, that started happening to Tall Tree in Redwood National Park in Del Norte County, which once held the tallest title. So many people stood at its base that the ground around the tree became hard-packed. By 1990, 10 feet of the tree's top had died and crashed to the ground.
Renee Pasquinelli, a senior environmental scientist for the state Department of Parks and Recreation, recalled how much attention Montgomery Woods attracted when Mendocino Tree was first recognized in 1999.
"We were bombarded with telephone calls from around the world wanting to know its location," Pasquinelli said.
Although Montgomery Woods is just one-fifth the size of Rockefeller Forest, it's home to some of the tallest redwoods found anywhere. It's a testament to Mendocino County's legacy of being the heart of the redwood empire before logging began in the mid-19th century. Today, only 4 percent of the ancient redwoods that used to grow along a narrow coastal strip from Santa Cruz to the Oregon border remain.
There's little doubt the Mendocino Tree has been eclipsed as the world's tallest, experts say.
Stephen Sillett is a Humboldt State University associate professor who was profiled this year by the New Yorker magazine for his hands-on studies of ancient redwood forest canopies and the unexpected botanical discoveries he has made while climbing and measuring the tall trees.
Sillett credits Atkins and his laser range finder for taking ground-level tree measurements to new heights.
"He is painstakingly accurate and his numbers are the best available for all of the redwoods I have not directly climbed," Sillett said.
He said sometimes Atkins underestimates a tree's height because "it is not possible to see the highest sprig from the ground."
But overall, Sillett said, their measurements have been extremely close despite the heights involved.
"On several trees we have both measured our numbers differ by less than 2 inches," Sillett said.
Atkins and Sillett belong to a "loosely organized group of tall-tree fanatics," who include North Coast residents Michael Taylor and Bob Van Pelt.
Sillett said their most current top-five list includes the new champ, Mendocino Tree, National Geographic Tree in Redwood National Park and two other towering redwoods in or near Rockefeller Forest called Paradox and Federation trees.
But Sillett, who's in Australia until early January, cautioned that the top five list is always "in flux."
He said he has not, for example, had a chance to remeasure Mendocino Tree or the two trees in Rockefeller Forest.
Does that mean Mendocino Tree has a chance to regain its title, given the possibility it too has grown even taller?
"Unlikely, but I will find out for sure in January," Sillett vowed.
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