I think you guys might be mixing up your trees. There 3 trees called redwoods, the Dawn Redwood which is native only to Communist China (Though often found as nursery stock), the Coast Redwood, and the Giant Sequoia.
The Giant Sequoia lives in a very narrow range in the Sierra Nevada mountains in grantic soil. There was only 35,000 acres of these giant trees. They will grow over 300' tall and up to 56' in diameter. The bark can be up to 3' thick. They are a very poor lumber tree, most were wasted due to breakage. I believe all remaining trees are on public land. They can live 3,500 years.
The real redwoods, the Coast Redwood or Sequoia Sempervirens, occupied over 2 million acres, grow 380' tall and have bark up to 1' thick. I often work in the southernmost grove in southern Monterey County near Big Sur. They grow along the coast up into southern Oregon. They can live 2,200 years. I break these tree into two groups, Old Growth and Second Growth. The OG lumber was and still is fantastic wood. It is dense and tight grained and very resistant to rot and insects. SG wood is crap. It is more like Giant Sequoia, loose grained and not resistant to decay. Yes on occasion some really nice second grove is logged but around here that is generally not the case.
The Giant Sequoia is generally thought of the a massive tree, and it is. However only 7 GSs are larger than the largest CRs! The largest CR grows in northern California where its location is kept secret. (The National Tree Agency, NTA, has heard of RandyMac!)
This a pic of a GS my friend Andy (and I) milled last year. It was about 7' at the butt and 100 years old IIRC.
Here is that same tree, look at the grain.
Some CR shots
The Giant Sequoia lives in a very narrow range in the Sierra Nevada mountains in grantic soil. There was only 35,000 acres of these giant trees. They will grow over 300' tall and up to 56' in diameter. The bark can be up to 3' thick. They are a very poor lumber tree, most were wasted due to breakage. I believe all remaining trees are on public land. They can live 3,500 years.
The real redwoods, the Coast Redwood or Sequoia Sempervirens, occupied over 2 million acres, grow 380' tall and have bark up to 1' thick. I often work in the southernmost grove in southern Monterey County near Big Sur. They grow along the coast up into southern Oregon. They can live 2,200 years. I break these tree into two groups, Old Growth and Second Growth. The OG lumber was and still is fantastic wood. It is dense and tight grained and very resistant to rot and insects. SG wood is crap. It is more like Giant Sequoia, loose grained and not resistant to decay. Yes on occasion some really nice second grove is logged but around here that is generally not the case.
The Giant Sequoia is generally thought of the a massive tree, and it is. However only 7 GSs are larger than the largest CRs! The largest CR grows in northern California where its location is kept secret. (The National Tree Agency, NTA, has heard of RandyMac!)
This a pic of a GS my friend Andy (and I) milled last year. It was about 7' at the butt and 100 years old IIRC.
Here is that same tree, look at the grain.
Some CR shots