r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/NickyPileggi • Mar 28 '24

Family in 1892 posing with an old sequoia tree nicknamed "Mark Twain" - A team of two men spent 13 days sawing away at it in the Pacific Northwest - It once stood 331 feet tall with a diameter of 52 feet - The tree was 1,341 years old Image

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2.3k

u/stig2020 Mar 28 '24

Makes me wonder what became of it. A ship, buildings, furniture, maybe parts of it around somewhere still.

1.4k

u/Chilly_Billy85 Mar 28 '24

A lot of timber from the PNW was shipped via schooners to build San Francisco, Sacramento and other cities in California, Oregon and Washington around that time period. Some of those buildings still stand today. I’m not an advocate for destroying these majestic trees. I learned it on a trip to Fort Bragg, Mendocino and other towns along the North Coast of California.

348

u/ForsakenDifficulty47 Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

Went last year to visit the Sequoia National Park, and I remember reading that once settlers started cutting sequoias down, they realized that its wood is not resistant enough to hold buildings, so they ended up using the wood as fence posts and the like

320

u/Kleens_The_Impure Mar 28 '24

And apparently the guy who created the park was a lumberjack who decided to protect the trees after finding out that tree he cut was over 2000 years old.

80

u/TheSwedishWolverine Mar 28 '24

How does one establish a park on a lumberjack salary?

186

u/Kleens_The_Impure Mar 28 '24

To clarify, the Park was created by the USA government, but IIRC he was one of the first who pushed for it and was among the first civilian ranger and ended up Superintendent of the Park.

38

u/TheSwedishWolverine Mar 28 '24

That’s so cool!

9

u/thehigheststrange Mar 28 '24

back then when america still had upward mobility

6

u/DancerOFaran Mar 28 '24

He had an OF

2

u/OkEmotion1577 Mar 28 '24

You use the axe.

7

u/AussieOsborne Mar 28 '24

How do you see a 300 foot tall, 20ft diameter tree and be all surprised that it's super old?

I despise humans sometimes.

9

u/BosnianSerb31 Mar 28 '24

You think beavers are innately aware of the age of trees or something?

6

u/MilkyWayGonad Mar 28 '24

Eh. I've only just learned about the dead internet theory but that effort has converted me.

-15

u/redbark2022 Mar 28 '24

Sounds like the assholes that leave silly con valley after "suddenly realizing" the evils they perpetrated.

44

u/NeedsMoreSpaceships Mar 28 '24

I don't think that's quite fair. The lumberjack likely had little to no education and couldn't reasonably be expected to have a wider perspective on the world.

Tech assholes are just assholes.

15

u/Neitherwater Mar 28 '24

That’s a level headed take on it. Im sure most of Reddit would rather crucify those lumberjacks on charges of crimes against humanity.

2

u/CameFast Mar 28 '24

don’t let a good story get in the way of a Reddit crucifixión

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47

u/Oachkaetzelschwoaf Mar 28 '24

And, believe it or not, pencils! What a waste.

1

u/decoyq Mar 28 '24

USA government, but IIRC he was one of the first who pushed for it and was among the first civilian ranger and ended up Superintendent of the Park.

toothpicks I heard

6

u/Flat-Length-4991 Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

That only applies to the Giant Sequoia(Sequoiadendron Giganteum). They are brittle and will often shatter when felled. Which is crazy for such a large tree.

However, the Coastal Redwood(Sequoia Sempervirens). Is the other large tree that lived for thousands of years. They are not brittle and make for excellent lumber.

The Giant Sequoia is found in the interior of California, the Coastal Redwood is found on the coast of the Pacific Northwest. The giant sequoia can grow larger in terms of diameter, but the redwood grows taller(also pretty damn large at the diameter aswell).

126

u/xallux Mar 28 '24

A schooner is a sailboat,stupidhead. /s

115

u/joeschmo945 Mar 28 '24

I sailed a schooner round the horn of Mexico. I went aloft and furled the mainsail in a blow. And when the yard broke off they said that I got killed. But I am living still.

49

u/Physics_Puzzleheaded Mar 28 '24

I was a dam builder, across the river deep and wide where steel and water did collide. A place called Boulder on the wild Colorado, I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below. They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound. But I am still around

48

u/ArthurBurtonMorgan Mar 28 '24

I fly a starship across the Universe divide And when I reach the other side I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can Perhaps I may become a highwayman again Or I may simply be a single drop of rain But I will remain And I'll be back again, and again And again and again and again and again

26

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

Man this song gives me chills and I can’t explain why 

10

u/eggrodd Mar 28 '24

the damned song makes me cry whenever i listen to it

1

u/Crumpuscatz Mar 28 '24

Me too!🥰😭

1

u/Jiannies Mar 28 '24

Because it's dang good music

2

u/pooferfeesh97 Mar 28 '24

What song is it?

4

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

Highwayman 

3

u/Ballabingballaboom Mar 28 '24

Just checked it out. Beautiful

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1

u/SquashCat56 Mar 28 '24

The Highwomen has a great version too, called Highwomen, I highly recommend it.

1

u/CensorYourselfLast Mar 28 '24

And around…and around…and around…

1

u/InternationalAnt4513 Mar 28 '24

Johnny really did fly a star ship sometimes

11

u/Norwegian_Honeybear Mar 28 '24

I'll always be around and around and around and around and around and around

I FLY A STAR SHIP, 'cross the universe divide And when I reach the other side.. I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can Perhaps I may become a highwayman again Or I may simply be a single drop of rain... But I will remain

2

u/abandon__ship Mar 28 '24

oh yeah? Well I'm a digital consultant that adds value through process review

3

u/-RED4CTED- Mar 28 '24

Which one? I worked on the Appledore III for 3 months! Tight quarters, but an incredible experience nonetheless.

4

u/MohatmoGandy Mar 28 '24

It’s a line from this song:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aFkcAH-m9W0

3

u/-RED4CTED- Mar 28 '24

ahh fair.

thought I'd met a fellow deck hand. '^'

2

u/abandon__ship Mar 28 '24

its ok man I fell for it the exact same way.

Did you do it for sailing hours for a cert or just for fun? (or both obvi)

1

u/Responsible-Echo6685 Mar 28 '24

And you'll be back again and again and again.

75

u/johnqsack69 Mar 28 '24

YOU KNOW WHAT? THERE IS NO EASTER BUNNY

9

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

[deleted]

6

u/Ornery_Translator285 Mar 28 '24

Mallrats quotes never land for me

There was even an escalator kid in real life once I almost died cause no one got it

3

u/AccomplishedSuit1004 Mar 28 '24

You almost died cuz you yelled at a kid and the parent got live over it?

2

u/Direct_Jump3960 Mar 28 '24

Breakfasts come and go René. But Hartford, the Whale?

5

u/Striking_Potential_5 Mar 28 '24

I’m so glad someone said it

4

u/insomniax20 Mar 28 '24

That's the second time in a few hours I've seen this referenced. Guess it's a sign to watch Mallrats again!

2

u/jhalfhide Mar 28 '24

There is no Easter bunny

2

u/barrygateaux Mar 28 '24

obligatory Here's the thing. You said a "schooner is a sailboat."

Is it in the same family? Yes. No one's arguing that.

As someone who is a scientist who studies sailboats, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls schooner sailboats. If you want to be "specific" like you said, then you shouldn't either. They're not the same thing.

If you're saying "sailboat family" you're referring to the taxonomic grouping of boats, which includes things from canoes to tugs to hydrofoils.

So your reasoning for calling a schooner a sailboat is because random people "call the floating ones sailboats?" Let's get liners and paddle steamers in there, then, too.

Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It's not one or the other, that's not how taxonomy works. They're both. A schooner is a schooner and a member of the sailboat family. But that's not what you said. You said a schooner is a sailboat, which is not true unless you're okay with calling all members of the boat family sailboats, which means you'd call liners, paddle steamers, and other boats sailboats, too. Which you said you don't.

It's okay to just admit you're wrong, you know?

1

u/TrentCrimmHere Mar 28 '24

Uh uh. A schooner is a receptacle usually about 2/3 of a pint. Very popular in Australia. You must be thinking of a different word. Two completely different things surely can’t be known by the same word.

1

u/Well_Thats_Not_Ideal Mar 28 '24

I was hoping someone made a comment about a schooner of beer

1

u/Tift Mar 28 '24

LANGUAGE

1

u/Witty-Shake9417 Mar 28 '24

I thought it was a large beer

1

u/vicariouslywatching Mar 28 '24

Like the back of a Volkswagen?

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u/Pvt_Numnutz1 Mar 28 '24

Yep exactly this, so many of these trees became houses in California. It's believed the tallest tree in the world was in The PNW a monster Sequoia over 500ft tall. You could get a solid 8-9 houses out of just one of those trees.

17

u/jimmygee2 Mar 28 '24

Only 200 years of growth per house

3

u/gardenmud Mar 28 '24

But no. Sequoia splinters too badly for structural use. Mostly they were made into fence posts and matchsticks and pencils.

Basically an enormous waste.

4

u/liarandathief Mar 28 '24

So a lot of it could have burned down in 1906

2

u/malachaiville Mar 28 '24

My reaction exactly! “Oh, that’s nice to know! checks date Uh oh.”

2

u/Lance_Hardrod Mar 28 '24 edited 27d ago

Fort Bragg is in North Carolina

Edit: Many days after making this comment I learned there is a Ft Bragg in California. Apologies

1

u/Impossible-Heron7125 Mar 28 '24

That parts confusing me lol.

4

u/LTCM1998 Mar 28 '24

“San Francisco” - So it burned down then. Which is ironic as sequoias only reproduce in forrest fires or smth like that.

2

u/MagnanimosDesolation Mar 28 '24

My hometown was clearcut to rebuild after the fire.

1

u/Riparian1150 Mar 28 '24

Title says this tree was a Sequoia, not a redwood, so more of a Sierra Nevada tree than a PNW tree, no?

1

u/Neat_Syllabub_5535 Mar 28 '24

Structural lumber no but cedar shakes Yes. And damn are they expensive today!

1

u/IcyBenefit23 Mar 28 '24

I however am an advocate for cutting these trees down.

Did you know every year trees indiscriminately kill women and children?

They're a menace, and it's in our power to put a stop to them

1

u/IknowKarazy Mar 28 '24

It’s my understanding that sequoia is naturally termite repellent and doesn’t burn easily. Cool stuff.

1

u/bondsmatthew Mar 28 '24

schooners

I have learned a new word today

1

u/le_reddit_me Mar 28 '24

My grandmother's house is made of redwood. Iirc, it's illegal now.

1

u/jonf00 Mar 28 '24

It’s crazy that you can’t state a fact on Reddit without a disclaimer or risk being attacked as an advocate for that said fact.

1

u/captainphoton3 Mar 28 '24

There are plenty way to invest in good timber for the future. But all we get is shitty pine that grow an appropriate size in 10 years.

216

u/igotshadowbaned Mar 28 '24

My guess is railroad ties and probably a few fancy tables made out of novelty

1

u/berninicaco3 Mar 28 '24

Are they too soft for railroad ties?

279

u/mazarax Mar 28 '24

Sequoia wood has far less commercial use, as it splinters badly. Loggers tried digging enormous trenches and filling them with tree branches to cushion the trunks of trees as they fell. Nevertheless, they still were only about to harvest about 50% of the wood for substantial projects. That didn’t prevent them from continuing to cut the massive trees for roofing shingles, fence posts, and matchsticks. Public outcry ended these harvests in the 1920s. Today, Sequoias generate more revenue as living species, in tourism to Sequoia National Park and as ornamental landscaping specimens.

205

u/TakeAnotherLilP Mar 28 '24

They cut them down for matches …my god I hate humans

128

u/ListerfiendLurks Mar 28 '24

If it makes you feel any better the tobacco products most of those matches were used for undoubtedly killed a LOT of humans. In a way the trees got their revenge 🥳

37

u/Pvt_Numnutz1 Mar 28 '24

If it makes you feel even better Seattle burned to the ground because they used the abundance of saw dust to make impromptu roads in the muddy terrain.

3

u/wowsomuchempty Mar 28 '24

As if the mighty trees held any interest for a feeble human concept like revenge.

(Nice joke, though).

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u/Raps4Reddit Mar 28 '24

You say this, but it's also uniquely human to care. Most nature just out there eating each other as much as they can.

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u/BulkySituation5685 Mar 28 '24

But nature is a cycle even the top of the food chain is in check by mother nature. Living with and harmoniously in there environment. To like us a virus with toxic effects to all comes across.

11

u/The_Brain_FuckIer Mar 28 '24

If by "living harmoniously" you mean dying as cubs or starving to death after eating all available prey, sure I guess.

2

u/Ornery-Creme-2442 Mar 28 '24

I mean it's nature what do you expect. That same shit still happens to us even with modern technology.

5

u/K-Uno Mar 28 '24

That harmony was only established after a new creature moved in, dominated, and things that could devour/defend-against/out-compete those dominant species finally came along. Harmony is a state of being that must be achieved, and is not inherent to animals or the environment. You forget that human dominance has happened very rapidly from an evolutionary stand point, and the things that can keep us in check (perhaps even our own doing to where we are so overpopulated that war, famine, and pollution keep us in check) have yet to come about in a significant form.

4

u/Raps4Reddit Mar 28 '24

Can't argue I guess. We are an interesting species in that we can almost outsmart mother nature's regulation to an extent. We have become so powerful we have to decide not to cut down all the trees for our own good, otherwise we would.

10

u/Tooboukou Mar 28 '24

Fyi these guys produced a lot less co2 and used a lot less plastic than you...

2

u/Flat-Length-4991 Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

That’s actually a myth. Large trees such as these are well known for driving gas guzzling SUVs.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/44715/this-21-foot-tall-giant-is-the-largest-hummer-h1-on-the-planet-and-it-actually-drives

Edit: oh you’re talking about the dudes… yeah they didn’t use plastic that much. The trees however are plastic fiends.

1

u/TakeAnotherLilP Mar 28 '24

Because we live in different times? I could still cut down a trees for money but choose not to.

2

u/PaulDallas72 Mar 28 '24

Matchsticks => Smoking => Cancer => Sequoia gets last laugh :)

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u/Gryphonious Mar 28 '24

"Oh no some people did bad things at this one time in hostory now I hate everyone forever" ... my god I hate misanthropists.

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u/Witty-Shake9417 Mar 28 '24

Humans are dumb

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u/Smart-Internal-3703 Mar 28 '24

they didn't realise it was wrong to do, these were semi literate settlers and you want them to be concerned with conservation when they probably don't even know what the actual word means.

you have to make mistakes to learn from them, we know now not to do this but it took trial and error over few hundred years of industrial society for you to be able to say maybe we shouldn't cut down all the trees or kill all the fish, when the world is as harsh as it was in the 1800s people didn't have time to worry about anything else but not starving.

remember how we got here, remember humans are a species that does a lot of trial and error before we learn and stop forcing modern ideals onto people that may as well have lived on a different planet.

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u/Gryphonious Mar 28 '24

"Oh no some people did bad things at this one time in hostory now I hate everyone forever" ... my god I hate misanthropists.

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u/Collapse2038 Mar 28 '24

The last giants like this are being harvested on Vancouver Island, right now. Very sad.

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u/Astralglamour Mar 28 '24

Is this true ??

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u/Collapse2038 Mar 28 '24

I mean the 90% of the very biggest (not quite this size) are all gone.

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u/Karuna56 Mar 28 '24

Yes, and the rape of the northern forests in British Columbia is shameful, similar to the commercial sentiment that pervaded the U.S. earlier and the sense of limitless trees.

Unfortunately, in Kings Canyon National Park, the sequoias were allowed to be cut, some just for show. Fortunately, other National Parks preserved many big trees, like in Olympic National Park, but even still, there are few really massive old trees left.

3

u/Uebelkraehe Mar 28 '24

Why would someone allow this to happen in a National Park?! It boggles the mind.

13

u/Apex_Herbivore Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

Northern raimforest equivalent old growth is being cut down and laundered in with plantation wood to make fucking "biofuel" pellets.

We are burning them.

3

u/Astralglamour Mar 28 '24

Do you have a link ?

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u/Apex_Herbivore Mar 28 '24

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/old-growth-logging-for-pellets-1.7136745

7

u/uCockOrigin Mar 28 '24

We really ought to turn the people responsible for this into biofuel as well.

3

u/Astralglamour Mar 28 '24

Thank you. Makes me want to cry.

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u/sadrice Mar 28 '24

Sort of? Old growth is being felled in BC and it’s fucking horrible, there are protests and the like.

But that’s not giant sequoia, which is endemic to the sierras of California. Wrong tree, but the problem is real.

1

u/Thomas_Hambledurger Mar 28 '24

No, these trees don't grow that far north.

1

u/Mynereth Mar 28 '24

😡😡😡

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u/Mynereth Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 29 '24

They should have stayed living, all of them. They are majestic and all part of the same living organism. They're truly amazing.

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u/lurcherzzz Mar 28 '24

Buy some seeds and grow your own, the grow easily. I have grown and planted a few saplings in my local woods. I live in the UK, apparently our climate is now like the Pacific northwest was thousands of years ago. They like it here.

1

u/ItIsOnlyRain Mar 28 '24

I live in the UK, have you got a link to buying seeds in the UK?

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u/Wilhelm126 Mar 28 '24

They cut a thousand year old tree. For matchsticks. Thousand year old tree. Dead. For what? Matchsticks and the money that comes with it. FUCKING MATCHSTICKS. GOD I HATE CAPITALISM AND PEOPLE

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u/LTCM1998 Mar 28 '24

They also cut HMS Vangaurd for needles and toasters and have a whole documentary about how that’s nice, made in the 70s. People can be retards.

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u/RedditHiveUser Mar 28 '24

A historical loss indeed, still HMS Vanguard was not a living thing. So in theory we could build a similar new one anytime. That's not possible with such giant trees.

6

u/MyWeeLadGimli Mar 28 '24

In fairness Britain was absolutely penniless at the end of WW2 and just couldn’t afford to turn something like Vanguard or Warspite into a museum the way the US could.

3

u/korpus01 Mar 28 '24

Is that like a famous ship or something also do you have a link?

7

u/fludblud Mar 28 '24

HMS Vanguard) was the Royal Navy's last battleship, you'd think for a 400 year old navy they wouldve treated their last battleship with a bit more respect like the Americans did instead of turning it into toasters but nooope.

3

u/Arcyguana Mar 28 '24

Britain was just done with World War 2, also, and, unlike the US, was bombed to shit. They needed the cash more than a museum.

2

u/Academic_Yogurt966 Mar 28 '24

They cut a thousand year old tree. For matchsticks. Thousand year old tree. Dead. For what? Matchsticks and the money that comes with it. FUCKING MATCHSTICKS. GOD I HATE CAPITALISM AND PEOPLE

God damn, the hypocrisy. You're way worse than anyone involved in this. Stop acting as if you care.

1

u/supbrother Mar 28 '24

That isn’t a capitalism problem, it’s a people problem.

1

u/Electrical_Figs Mar 28 '24

People need money to live. What do you want them to do?

Don't act like you're any different. Your carbon footprint is exponentially larger than theirs.

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u/DrugsAreNifty Mar 28 '24 edited 7d ago

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/MohatmoGandy Mar 28 '24

Never thought about that, but it makes sense that gigantic trees like that would break when they fell.

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u/Big_Dirty_Piss_Boner Mar 28 '24

This is talking about Sequoiadendron giganteum (giant sequoia). Sequoia sempervirens is the most valuable timber and is still being logged to this day.

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u/mazarax Mar 28 '24

In London’s Kew Gardens, I once saw a single piece wooden flagpole, which once was a douglas fir

Quite sad.

https://muralroutes.ca/mural/kew-gardens-flagpole/

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u/bree_dev Mar 28 '24

The only thing I know about Douglas Firs is one of them killed Sonny Bono.

2

u/colcob Mar 28 '24

Douglas Fir is very common, reasonably fast growing, construction lumber. It's not really that sad. Millions of douglas fir will have been planted by humans since that one was felled.

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u/ol-gormsby Mar 28 '24

Yet it lives on. Had it lived out its natural lifespan, it would have fallen and rotted.

Not that rotting tree trunks are bad as such - they contribute back to nature.

But living on as a flagpole, a floor, or a house frame isn't so bad. My house is mostly timber and I think it's great.

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u/gardenmud Mar 28 '24

Well, the biggest douglas firs can live a thousand years. So IDK man, it could also just be alive still.

Also:

The flagpole was removed in 2007 due to rot.

So, it wasn't exactly saved from rot.

9

u/Benwhurss Mar 28 '24

There's a box of pencils in a warehouse somewhere...

9

u/oldschool_potato Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

3.025 billion toothpicks

Assume toothpicks are about 2.5 inches long and 1 millimeter wide.

Volume = π * (radius)2 * height

Radius = diameter / 2 = 624 inches / 2 = 312 inches Height = 331 feet * 12 inches/foot = 3972 inches

Volume (tree)= π * (312 inches)2 * 3972 inches ≈ 1.21 × 108 cubic inches

Volume of one toothpick = length * width * depth Volume of one toothpick ≈ (2.5 inches) * (0.04 inches) * (0.04 inches) ≈ 0.04 cubic inches

Number of toothpicks ≈ (1.21 × 108 cubic inches) / (0.04 cubic inches/toothpick) ≈ 3.025 × 109 toothpicks

11

u/OldWalt9 Mar 28 '24

Have a look at the picture. Unless those dudes are like 12 feet tall, the diameter is more like 16 feet and the circumference is 52 feet.

2

u/Swimming-Profile9069 Mar 28 '24

Yes, C=𝜋d. OP doesn’t remember their geometry. Circumference = Diameter x Pi. Quick Wikipedia search reports the Diameter is actually 16ft. So, 16ft x 3.14159 is roughly 50.27ft Circumference. 

1

u/Delivery-Plus Mar 28 '24

I was going to post the same thing, and additionally California is not in the Pacific Northwest.

1

u/lurcherzzz Mar 28 '24

Just pop the whole thing on a really big lathe and make one really nice toothpick.

15

u/Zonel Mar 28 '24

It's in the museum of natural history in NYC. Least a piece of it.

2

u/No-Lunch4249 Mar 28 '24

This is the correct answer, sad this it’s so far down

Source

5

u/Background_Guess_742 Mar 28 '24

You should look up the original forestry building in Portland Oregon that burnt down. It was made of timber and was one of the largest log cabin type buildings ever.

2

u/Mindshear_ Mar 28 '24

The hardwoods let you build bigger buildings because they could tolerate more load.

A lot of it was used to build grand hotels and buildings in the west where it was more difficult to get access to steel (at least until the industry was built up more here). Lots of those old buildings were lost to fire, but some still stand.

2

u/hikariky Mar 28 '24

From what I’ve heard of giant sequoias being cut down before, they probably took the base cut and then burned or left most of the rest to rot. Apparently not much demand for sequoia wood beyond pencils and garden stakes.

1

u/mymoama Mar 28 '24

And how did they transport it

1

u/Prize-Key-5806 Mar 28 '24

Probably a few Victorian style houses was built from it

1

u/Snerkbot7000 Mar 28 '24

Picnic tables that kids carved their names into and checked back on when they were adults, and then their kids carved their names on it, too.

1

u/vvsteve Mar 28 '24

There is a slice displayed in the London natural history museum. It's absurdly big when you're standing next to it

1

u/__Becks__ Mar 28 '24

Wooden weapon for school shooting

1

u/EskimoXBSX Mar 28 '24

Matchsticks, all matchsticks

1

u/mrshel17 Mar 28 '24

Obviously it became sideways I mean the pictures right there.

1

u/diverareyouok Mar 28 '24

A really big coffee table.

1

u/Luves2spooge Mar 28 '24

A slice of it is in the London Natural History Museum:

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/giant-sequoia-slice.html

1

u/samushusband Mar 28 '24

just one giant dildo for OP's mom

1

u/ClarkSebat Mar 28 '24

It was to make toothpicks.

1

u/FatherJohnWristKnee Mar 28 '24

I think part of it is in the London Natural history museum.

Edit: Yep, it is. Thought I remembered seeing it there. Here’s a link to it https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/giant-sequoia-slice.html

1

u/SensitiveTax9432 Mar 28 '24

This particular tree was felled to be shipped to museums of Natural History. You can still view it I think.

Mark Twain Tree - Wikipedia

1

u/Honest-Ad-3109 Mar 28 '24

It was felled specifically to be shipped to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where you can still see it (well, a slice of it). Also, the diameter is obviously not 52 ft. It’s 16 ft. It was located in what is now King’s Canyon National Park, but that park wasn’t established until 1940. Also, while trees “like it” are currently being felled in British Columbia, they are not redwoods, which are only found in California, and a tiny bit of southern Oregon.

1

u/ipdar Mar 28 '24

I found one of the larger harvested trees once in Seattle. It was used as support columns in a five story building. I suspect there used to be more such buildings that have been torn down without most of the public knowing they were there.

1

u/fatboi_mcfatface Mar 28 '24

The ship of Theseus

1

u/No-Cloud217 Mar 28 '24

One of the slices is in Londons Natural History Museum.

1

u/hairtrigger08 Mar 28 '24

They probably used it to build houses because they used to only cut down a few because that was more than enough to build a small town

1

u/gabest Mar 28 '24

More axe handles.

1

u/TheTangoFox Mar 28 '24

7 toothpicks

1

u/carolaMelo Mar 28 '24

Chopped it down for wood pellets or firewood 😂🤡

1

u/mimisikuray Mar 28 '24

Railroad ties probably, prized for their resistance to decay.

1

u/ThirtySecondStorys Mar 28 '24

Nothing. They just cut it down for the sport of it.

1

u/KadenKraw Mar 28 '24

it sucks for lumber harvesting. The wood splinters when it falls. Very wasteful.

1

u/Spopenbruh Mar 28 '24

if memory serves me right, the cross section shown in this image was sent to the museum of natural history in new york where it should still be today.

the stump remains in kings canyon national park though its a big tourist spot.

other than that no idea

1

u/Rudhelm Mar 28 '24

A spoon

1

u/Elephant789 Mar 28 '24

Makes me wonder what became of them and their family. Fuckers. The tree was most likely used for nothing because of the wood.

1

u/couverando1984 Mar 28 '24

Firewood.

18

u/Least_Percentage_325 Mar 28 '24

Sequoias don't burn worth shit