Beautiful wood.
My guess is old growth vertical grain Douglas fir.
My second guess is Heart redwood.
Both are very nice to have.
A easy test. Cut a 1/8 strip and see how flexible. The Fir will very flexible.
Redwood will not be maybe even brittle.
Fir will a slightly spicy smell.
Redwood?
I don't think it cedar
Good luck

 

My first though looking at the picture is vertical grain, Doug fir. But since you say it is light in weight, it may well be western red cedar, i could tell in a minute by smelling it.

 

I would like to change my guess to WRC now that I see the pic on my wife's computer.
Mr bondogaposis is correct the weight and smell is the tell.
Good luck

 

Id say Fir.

 

Your back story sounds eerily similar to one of mine. Last year a very good friend of mine salvaged boards that look just like your pictures. He was Clearing out his fathers house and told me his father had used these for shelving in his den. My friend had such memories of seeing them as a kid and asked me if I could make him something from them. I ended up making him and his siblings boxes. When processing the wood I came across a faded stamp with the words California and redwood.

 

It looks exactly like the Giant Sequoia of California. It has a tight grain because the trees grew very slowly for thousands of years. There was a time when the massive trees were freely harvested, and entire houses were constructed of the wood. Nearly all surviving groves are now protected from lumber harvest.

The top of this box is Giant Sequoia. How do I know? Because I personally picked up scraps at a place called Shake Camp, where Giant Sequoias were cut down and split into fence rails and roof shakes.

Sorry, my knife cuts made the grain hard to study.

 

What ever it is it looks like it came from a huge tree based on the very large rings on the end grain. If it’s cedar it would be light because Douglas fir is much heavier. My guess is western red cedar.

What a great find. I hope you build something fitting for those wonderful boards.

 

Is there a difference between sequoia and redwood? Curious.
Was at a furniture show in NC. One display had a redwood bar set. Beautiful with fabric that looked like the fabrics of the PNW Indians.

 

Yes they are different species and some differences in properties. Redwood get's used to generically define three unique species associated with the west coast.

 

I also have a piece of sequoia from the same place as Phil. My observations the wood is very brittle compared to regular redwood.
If anyone is wondering how it got. I took it when the Rangers were not looking. 🙃
Good Luck

 

one thing I like about this end grain shot is looking across the end grain and seeing the climate change.....eeerrr..... weather patterns...... throughout the years. aging it is difficult. I have had similar with some lumber I harvested from an old barn where I found written in concrete,"erected 1863."one of the projects I used the lumber for was this tool chest https://www.lumberjocks.com/showcase/my-homebuilt-tool-chest.117767/

 

California Coastal Redwood is significantly different from Sequoia Redwood. The first grow only from the bay area to Oregon border on the northern California coast. Sequoia gigantea grows only in the western slopes of the Sierra between Yosemite (Mariposa grove) and the upper Kern River drainage(Trail of the 100 giants). Sequoia redwoods are protected. You will not find lumber in exotic wood shops. Perhaps the only source would be salvaged lumber from old structures.

 

There is a lovingly tended grove of Coastal Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) down in Orange County. It is 12 miles north of Disneyland near the Nixon Library.

 

I have a map of the red wood tree adventure. For someone who has never been through these little trees it will blow your mind.

Its been about 60 years ago or more when we stopped at Cresent City, Cal and don't even know how to spell it.
I was told a great story how these guys would get these stumps of red wood for free and some of the smarter folks took advantage of that wood and I met the nicest guy who did just that..
I still have lots of slabs of wood I bought that day hanging in my shop. Actually I have three different species of wood from that adventure.
This table top plus the base was too big to fit anywhere for the drive back home in tx. So for the rest of that trip they were in the way every time we started to use the shower or bathtub in that camper.

And finally after over 60 years of those two big pieces of wood still being in the way I finally decided to turn them in to a great looking table..Those pieces of wood stayed in the way in 3 different shop in 3 different towns....I knew I did not want them to get lost was the reason they stayed real close to my work area all them years.
All I did to this red wood was to sand the top and left all the surface cracks showing then applied the clear.
This guy was smart enough to have way more bases than was needed for like he said everyone is different and no one wants the same looking stuff as their neighbors have!!!
I didn't have any rope to tie the wood down and ever so often my wife would say the wood back there is trying to say something as I can here them rumbling and groaning.
With about 40 different pieces of wood we had them shoved and cramed in to every little bit of space on the rest of that trip.
If you are any kind of a wood worker it would make a great trip to remember even if you have to drive from Florida or New York to get there.
Just wait till you get out of California if you have to get gas..
halfacre

 

I have a map of the red wood tree adventure. For someone who has never been through these little trees it will blow your mind. View attachment 3898306
Its been about 60 years ago or more when we stopped at Cresent City, Cal and don't even know how to spell it.
I was told a great story how these guys would get these stumps of red wood for free and some of the smarter folks took advantage of that wood and I met the nicest guy who did just that..
I still have lots of slabs of wood I bought that day hanging in my shop. Actually I have three different species of wood from that adventure.
This table top plus the base was too big to fit anywhere for the drive back home in tx. So for the rest of that trip they were in the way every time we started to use the shower or bathtub in that camper. View attachment 3898307
And finally after over 60 years of those two big pieces of wood still being in the way I finally decided to turn them in to a great looking table..Those pieces of wood stayed in the way in 3 different shop in 3 different towns....I knew I did not want them to get lost was the reason they stayed real close to my work area all them years.
All I did to this red wood was to sand the top and left all the surface cracks showing then applied the clear.
This guy was smart enough to have way more bases than was needed for like he said everyone is different and no one wants the same looking stuff as their neighbors have!!!
I didn't have any rope to tie the wood down and ever so often my wife would say the wood back there is trying to say something as I can here them rumbling and groaning.
With about 40 different pieces of wood we had them shoved and cramed in to every little bit of space on the rest of that trip.
If you are any kind of a wood worker it would make a great trip to remember even if you have to drive from Florida or California to get there.
Just wait till you get out of California if you have to get gas..
halfacre

Also all the east-west roads through those redwoods use to be logging trails so the reason why they are so curvy as it will make some throw up before they get back to regular roads.

 

Wow, that sure looks like the redwood table I sold last year. Yes? Thanks, Dave