The Douglas fir and cedar giants that were saved from the ax by the creation of Ravenna Park in the late 1880s were later felled by the Seattle Parks Department near the park's eastern entrance off Ravenna Boulevard. Tennis courts (at left in contemporary photo) cover the general area now.

The trout stream that once flowed from Green Lake through the future Ravenna Park ravine to Lake Washington was first crossed by the railroad late in 1887. The next year, W.W. Burke, a Presbyterian preacher and real-estate developer, bought the ravine and developed 60 acres of it as a park. With the new interurban conveniently at the front gate of "Natural Ravenna Park," this well-appointed party was almost certainly delivered to Ravenna by rail.

The photographer has artfully arranged his friends in front of one of the park's giants. With Douglas firs 15 to 20 feet in diameter and 300 feet tall, the exceptional grove near the park's southeast entrance was considered one of the natural treasures of the West. Then, strangely, the city felled the trees, at least in part for cord wood, after buying the park through condemnation in 1911.

The Burkes had named this tree and most of the others for distinguished people, many of whom visited the park. The violinist Fritz Kritzler kissed and hugged one of the big trees. His wife explained, "Fritz is always wild about the woods." The biggest tree was christened for Theodore Roosevelt after his visit in 1908.

The Mineral Spring noted by the attached sign was one of about 40 springs in Ravenna Park. An early-published source describes the bubbling Mineral Spring as containing "many health-giving properties whose waters are unlike many mineral springs in being exceedingly pleasant to the taste."