- Dan Fallon: Lee, you know how I've always felt about you. Maybe we could...
- Lee Roberts: We could probably do lots of things. I just don't feel that way about you.
- Dan Fallon: Don't forget, Dad - the law is on our side.
- Fallon's Father: Of course, son. The law's a wonderful thing.
- Bill Cardigan: My other trees will take care of the bank; these redwoods will never be cut down.
- Lee Roberts: No? Why not?
- Bill Cardigan: My parents are buried here in Monarch Valley. These redwoods - the biggest trees in the world - are their monuments. My dad and mother settled here before I was born - they loved it. I learned to walk in this forest. I remember my dad telling me, a long time ago, that I never had to be afraid of anybody or anything, as long as the big trees watched over me. They'd always take care of me. My dad was right.
- [first lines]
- Narrator: For more than fifty years, the lumber barons of the midwest had stripped its mighty forests, without regard for the eventual results. Like a scythe wielded in the hands of destruction, their logging crews slashed through the timber, felling great trees that could never be replaced in the lifespan of countless generations. Forest giants were sent crashing to the ground, felled like so much kindling - sawed into logs, and hauled through dense woodland trails to the banks of a nearby river. From here they were sent plunging into the water - the very water that nurtured them as saplings, and carried them in rafts downstream to the mill. Huge saws fashioned them into planks - and then, as though proud of the devastation they had wrought, the plunderers stenciled their marks upon them. Backed by limitless power and wealth, they moved in, crushing small landowners and independent millmen. Then, as the supply failed, they turned to the green slopes of the Pacific coast, and the oldest living things in the world - the giant redwood trees, centuries old before history began. This was the era of the timber steal.
- Dan Fallon: I haven't run into a deal yet where a beautiful woman couldn't be used to good advantage.