General Noble, Giant sequoia in Converse Basin Grove, California, US

General Noble was a giant sequoia in Converse Basin Grove, Fresno County, about 300 feet tall with a ground circumference of 95 feet, second in the grove only to the Boole Tree. The King's River Lumber Company felled it in 1892 and cut the trunk into 46 sections. Its 20-foot stump, the Chicago Stump, stands in the grove today.

The General Noble Tree was felled in 1892 by the King's River Lumber Company, which cut its trunk into 46 sections for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Some sections weighed over four tons and were hauled by wagons pulled by 16 mules, then shipped in 11 railroad cars. The cutting, transport and installation cost $10,475.87. It was the largest tree ever felled.

The tree was named for John Willock Noble, Secretary of the Interior, who had recommended creating Sequoia National Park in 1890; the tree itself stood outside the park boundary. Visitors to the Chicago Stump can see the 20-foot remnant of the trunk that was cut into 46 sections for Chicago. The stump is reached by a 0.5-mile trail about six miles north of Grant Grove Village.

The Chicago Stump is reached by a flat trail about half a mile long from Forest Road 13S03 through the surrounding forest. The path is easy to walk, though the location sits at higher elevation so visitors should be prepared for mountain conditions.

The reassembled sections in Washington, D.C. formed a structure called the General Noble Redwood Tree House, built on the grounds of the main building of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It stayed there more than 40 years before it deteriorated and was removed; it never returned to California.