The Tree House has been making believers out of tourists for 100 years.

World Famous Tree House

Piercy, California

The "World Famous Tree House" -- a gnarled sovereign of vintage postcard collections -- is a hundred-year-old tourist attraction in a gigantic redwood. The tree towers over 250 feet high, is said to be 4,000 years old, and contains a hollow, 50-foot-high cavity. A lightning strike centuries ago incinerated the center of the tree, leaving several openings around the base big enough for human entry. Thanks to the redwood's thick, tannic-infused bark, the fire burned itself out and the tree did not die.

World Famous Tree House stuffed owl.

In the early 1920s an entrepreneur turned the cavity into a room with doors and windows, and the still-growing "tree house" became one of the earliest tourist attractions in the area, its thick roots pushing up through accommodating gaps cut into the floorboards.

In 1925 Minnie Stoddard and her husband, William Lilley, bought a 55-acre parcel in the redwood forest because it included that tree, which had been named "The Fraternal Monarch." Construction began on the adjacent Redwood Highway in 1929. A contingent of convicts building the road actually bunked in the tree.

Completion of the highway led to a rise in tourism, so Minnie opened a souvenir stand as part of Lilley Redwood Park, which included 11 cabins and a restaurant. Admission was free; the 27-foot-wide room in the tree was used as a bar and gift shop, packed with redwood crafts. Postcards during that time referred to the attraction as "The Quadruped Tree."

Friendly cartoon bears welcome visitors to the World Famous Tree House.

In 1933 the tree was christened "The World's Tallest Home" in a widely syndicated Ripley's Believe It or Not! cartoon, and thereafter evolved into "The World Famous Tree House." Ripley's notoriety has benefited the Tree ever since, with "Believe It Or Not!" displayed prominently on a sign jutting from the tree toward US Highway 101.

Tree House owner Angela Blackwell shows us a popular gift item.

Minnie Stoddard died in 1947. A marker was placed by E Clampus Vitus in 2016, across from nearby Confusion Hill, marking her grave and mausoleum among the redwoods.

Subsequent owners kept the World Famous Tree House open through the decades. On an early Roadside America trip we were told that the light bulb hanging overhead in the Tree House hadn't been changed for 30 years. At some point the souvenir stand shifted to an attached building, the photogenic front door to the Tree was locked, and visitors were routed to enter -- after paying a few dollars -- through the gift shop.

Angela and Bruce Blackwell bought the Tree House, as well as the cabins and restaurant, in 1999. Business hours became seasonal, indicated when the neon "OPEN" sign hanging on the World Famous Tree House was turned on. Parking was along the deep road shoulder. Wooden sculptures were arrayed along the frontage, with a designated "Chainsaw Carving" area, presumably for live demonstrations.

The redwood that houses the World Famous Tree House dwarfs visitor vehicles.

The Tree House room -- roughly 30 feet across -- delivers a sense of timeless roadside appeal, illuminated by a single dangling light bulb (maybe the same one?), its walls decorated with signs, carved masks, pictures of redwoods, and a taxidermy owl on a perch.

Redwood art inside the World Famous Tree House.

On a road trip in the region in December 2017 we were advised by workers at three separate redwood attractions that the World Famous Tree House had been shut down, probably for years. However, we noticed that the OPEN sign was once again lit. Angela Blackwell was at the cash register, and told us that Bruce had passed away in February. Continuing the trials of 2017, she said that record rains and rock slides had closed parts of US 101, cutting the normal flow of potential customers.

When the Tree House shut its door again during the pandemic in 2020, naysayers were confident that this time it had closed for good

In 2025, however, Angela reopened the World Famous Tree House to the public. She told us that her long absence was simply because Covid had made her want to spend more time with her family. "I love the Tree House," Angela said, "but it's not fair to people who want to see it if I can't be there to keep it open. It's a hard decision to give it up." She said that she planned to spend the rest of her time at the Tree House looking for what she called "the right person" to take it over.

Lessons learned: fire can't kill a redwood tree, and even a global pandemic can't kill a classic redwood tree attraction.