1950s Trees of Mystery, Redwood Highway, California

This vintage 1950s–1960s postcard features the full poem The Redwoods by Joseph B. Strauss, celebrating the majestic redwoods at the Trees of Mystery attraction along U.S. 101 near Klamath, California. Strauss, famed as the chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge and also a poet and musician, honors the towering trees as “proud monarchs” and “tall conquerors that laugh at storms,” capturing their timeless grandeur and spiritual presence.

The Redwoods, by Joseph B. Strauss

Here sown by the Creators hand. In serried ranks, the Redwoods stand:
No other clime is honored so. No other lands their glory know.
The greatest of earth's living forms. Tall conquerors that laugh at storms.
Their challenge still unanswered vered rings. Through fifty centuries of kings.
The nations that with them were young. Rich empires, with their forts far-flung.
Lie buried now their splendor gone: But these proud monarchs still live on.
So shall they live, when ends our day. When our crude citadels decay:
For brief the years allotted man. But infinite perennials span.
This is their temple, vaulted high. And here we pause with reverent eye.
With silent tongue and awe-struck soul. For here we sense life's proper goal.
To be like these, straight, true and fine. To make our world, like theirs, a shrine:
Sink down, Oh traveller, on your knees. God stands before you in these trees.

The postcard highlights the Cathedral Tree area, where redwoods form a natural semi-circle “temple,” and includes a commemorative plaque with the final stanza of Strauss’s poem. Produced as a chrome card by E.F. Clements with color work by Mike Roberts of Berkeley, this card is a rare collectible for fans of California redwoods, poetic tributes, and vintage roadside Americana.

A vibrant vintage postcard that would look great framed, make a wonderful hostess gift, or make an excellent addition to any collection.

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