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| ERA |
PERIOD |
EPOCH |
MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO BEGAN |
MAJOR EVENTS THAT HELPED SHAPE "MARCEL'S FOREST" |
| Cenozoic |
Quaternary |
Holocene |
Present
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0.01 |
- 1999--Pourroy family deeds 25-acre site to California State Parks with help from Save-the-Redwoods League
- 1989--San Andreas Fault ruptures, resulting in 6.9 quake called the "Loma Prieta Quake." Epicenter is in Nisene Marks SP
- 1963--The Marks children deed land to California State Parks with stipulation that park be named in honor of their mother, "Nisene"
- 1956--Marcel and Anna Pourroy buy land later called "Marcel's Forest"
- 1955--The Marks Family purchases main land segment of Nisene Marks SP for the purpose of drilling for oil
- 1906--Earthquake shakes the park killing 9 men in logging camp along Hinckley Creek.
- 1880s--Logging begins in what is now Nisene Marks SP
- 1844--Soquel Augmentation granted to Martina Castro, largest portion of present-day state park
- 1833--Rancho Aptos (which includes Marcel's Forest) is granted to Rafael Castro.
Rancho Soquel granted to Martina Castro, Rafael's younger half-sister - 1822--Mexico gains control of California from Spain
- 1791--Mission Santa Cruz founded
- 1774--A Spaniard writes in his journal about the Ohlone practice of setting fires "so that new 'yerbas' (grasses or herbs) will come up; and to catch the rabbits which get confused by the smoke"
- 1769--Friar Juan Crespi writes first historical account of the redwoods describing them as "...very high trees of a red color.."
- 1769--Spanish arrive and start building missions, presidios, and pueblos
- 1000 A.D.--Approximate time that "Advocate Tree" begins its life on Aptos Creek
- 500 A.D.--Ohlone first appear in Bay Area (possibly replacing the Hokan Indians)
- 5,500 years ago--Sequoia most abundant with range contracting thereafter
- 10,000 years ago--Humans occupy entire coast of California; climatic instability in early Holocene
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| Pleistocene |
1.6 |
- Many mammals of North America go extinct.
- Mid-Pleistocene mammals in Marcel's Forest are different than the mammals seen there today
- Sequoia as far south as Santa Barbara in late Pleistocene
- Glacial cycles.
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| Tertiary |
Neogene |
Pliocene |
5.3 |
- Principal uplift of Coast Range and Sierras and Cascades
- Early Pliocene: Embayment still covers Marcel's Forest.
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| Miocene |
23.7 |
- Climate becomes dry over much of western North America
- Middle Miocene: Marine embayment covers what is now Nisene Marks State Park, including Marcel's Forest.
- Sequoiadendron forests in western Nevada much like modern Sierran forest
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| Paleogene |
Oligocene |
36.6 |
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| Eocene |
57.8 |
Climate in western US is subtropical to temperate |
| Paleocene |
66.4 |
- Coast redwood's cousin, Sequoia affinis in Wyoming
- Major Extinction: Dinosoaurs disappear
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| Mesozoic |
Cretaceous |
144 |
First flowering plants. Sequoia and Sequoiadendron present. |
| Jurassic |
208 |
Seed ferns |
| Triassic |
245 |
Conifers (the larger group that the coast redwood and the Sierra redwood evolved from which includes pine trees) increase |
| Paleozoic |
Permian |
286 |
Treelike lycopods |
| Carboniferous |
Pennsylvanian |
320 |
Coal-forming swamps present in eastern U.S. |
| Mississippian |
360 |
Progymnosperms (plants that produced wood but also produced spores like a fern), seed ferns, and true ferns present |
| Devonian |
408 |
Lycopods, horsetail relatives, seed ferns and early progymnosperms present |
| Silurian |
438 |
Land plants first appear |
| Ordovician |
505 |
Marine algae |
| Cambrian |
570 |
Marine "algae" |
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Precambrian |
4600 |
Simple "algae" and fungi |
