A second wave of logging following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake further contributed to the forest's destruction, leaving only a few scattered pockets of old-growth redwoods left in the entirety of East Bay.

Old Survivor's location on an exceptionally steep and rocky slope beside Horseshoe Creek made it unprofitable to log, and thus the tree was spared the fate of its neighbors.

[3] In 1916, the land where the tree stands was purchased by the city of Oakland in order to preserve the remaining redwoods in the area.

A core ring count at the time made by Glen Strouse at Humboldt State University estimated the tree's age to be between 415 and 420 years old relative to 1969.

[7] In 2018, the documentary film Old Survivor celebrated the tree and reflected back on the history of Oakland's coastal redwood forests.