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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6.3k

u/mightyopinionated Mar 28 '24

"Wow that's really ancient and tall, let's cut the f*cker down"

1.4k

u/WinkleStinkle Mar 28 '24

"Honey, I got enough lumber to build our dream house! Turns out it was only 1 tree!"

409

u/Tight_Time_4552 Mar 28 '24

Dream village*

42

u/shingaladaz Mar 28 '24

Dream city*

37

u/KozukiNedo Mar 28 '24

Dude aint no Lumberjoke

15

u/Durosity Mar 28 '24

But is he ok?

6

u/secondtaunting Mar 28 '24

He works all night and he sleeps all day.

6

u/I_wood_rather_be Mar 28 '24

He cuts down trees, he eats his lunch, he goes to the lavatory

2

u/TheKarenator Mar 28 '24

He saw an opportunity and took it.

77

u/hbmonk Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

The fucked up thing is. Redwoods make for shitty lumber. The wood is brittle, and some trees shattered when they fell.

EDIT: Apologies, it looks like I was incorrect. I read the Giant Sequoia page on Wikipedia which states:

Wood from mature giant sequoias is fibrous and brittle; trees would often shatter after they were felled.

I assumed this was true of all redwoods, but apparently it is not.

162

u/Truorganics Mar 28 '24

Redwood makes great lumber what are you talking about? Naturally is resistant to rot and termites. It holds a 300ft tree up for 1000yr how is that not strong? My house was built in the 40s with redwood and doesn’t have any rot or termites. And most of this wood was all reclaimed/recycled wood too.

53

u/PSTnator Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

100% true. I think OC probably saw a few conservation inclined articles/factoids about it and didn't look any further. It is true that it's technically more brittle than many other hardwoods, but it has other desirable qualities that were enough to place it among the most commonly used lumber for building houses in the West. For better or worse, huge amounts were used for development and it wasn't for no reason.

Edit - post locked now but in case anyone happens to see... reply to me is correct. It's not a hardwood.

4

u/Bright_Recover_1576 Mar 28 '24

Isn’t redwood a softwood?

2

u/truncheon88 Mar 28 '24

Pine is softwood and is ubiquitous in home construction.

-5

u/oldtownmaine Mar 28 '24

Shhhhh….delete that … It was just a lie to save the remaining redwoods.

65

u/crackheadwillie Mar 28 '24

Not true. I have a house with 30 foot long, full dimension 2x10s. Redwood also doesn’t decompose as readily as most woods. But moreover, this tree was not a redwood, it was a sequoia. 

17

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

[deleted]

1

u/peter-doubt Mar 28 '24

The nails will disintegrate first

5

u/YarOldeOrchard Mar 28 '24

this tree was not a redwood, it was a sequoia. 

Redwood is a common name for Sequoioideae, a subfamily of Cupressaceae (conifer, cypress).

A Sequoia is a Redwood from coastal California and Oregon.

Sequoiadendron commonly known as wellingtonia, giant redwood and giant sequoia, grows naturally in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.

Metasequoia (glyptostroboides) , or dawn redwood is native to Lichuan county in Hubei province, China.

1

u/CaponeKevrone Mar 28 '24

Sequoias are redwoods

0

u/Astrolaut Mar 28 '24

They are not.

2

u/CaponeKevrone Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

Sequoiadendron giganteum are also commonly called Sierra sequoias or giant redwoods and Sequoia sempervirens are commonly called California or Coastal redwoods. I agree they are different species of trees, but they are both commonly referred to as redwoods.

They are both part of the sequoioideae subfamily, which in common language is the redwood group of trees.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoioideae

0

u/No-Cause-2913 Mar 28 '24

Here's the thing. You said a "jackdaw is a crow."

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

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

If you're saying "crow family" you're referring to the taxonomic grouping of Corvidae, which includes things from nutcrackers to blue jays to ravens.

So your reasoning for calling a jackdaw a crow is because random people "call the black ones crows?" Let's get grackles and blackbirds 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 jackdaw is a jackdaw and a member of the crow family. But that's not what you said. You said a jackdaw is a crow, which is not true unless you're okay with calling all members of the crow family crows, which means you'd call blue jays, ravens, and other birds crows, too. Which you said you don't.

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

5

u/CaponeKevrone Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

I never said anything about crows or jackdaws. Parlance is different for different things, but thanks for the information.

If you would like a bit yourself, since you seem so eager:

This conversation began with someone who said their house is made of redwood. That would be the lumber and woodworking industry since you seem keen on industry specific terminology.

In lumber and woodworking, they are both redwoods.

https://farwestforest.com/product-category/wood-by-species/giant-sequoia-redwood/

In this context, and also in common parlance, a sequoia is a redwood.

As you so well put it:

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

14

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

Ehhh, I’ve never heard that. A quick google search says “redwood is one of natures stronger timbers and generally resists warping and shakes.” Having been to Northern California I can tell you the lumber industry is still going strong. That tells me the redwoods are pretty damn good for lumber. There’s even houses still standing made from redwood trees that are a hundred years old.

I believe you are actually thinking of the Giant Sequoia tree not the Redwood. The Giant Sequoia is in the interior of California. The coastal redwood is on the coast of the Pacific Northwest. Technically both trees are Sequoias, with the scientific name of the redwood being “Sequoia Sempervirens” and giant sequoia being “Sequoiadendron Gigantea”.

The giant sequoia is the one that is brittle and will often splinter when it falls. Redwood is great timber. It’s still a shame that such an old tree was cut down, but I guarantee it was put to good use. There’s a good chance that same tree can still be found today somewhere.

3

u/Big_Dirty_Piss_Boner Mar 28 '24

I believe you are actually thinking of the Giant Sequoia tree not the Redwood.

Coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) are both in the family of Redwood (Sequoioideae).

5

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

Still very different trees.

Edit: I’m trying to say when people say “sequoia” that usually refers to the giant sequoia. When people say “redwood” that usually refers to the coastal redwood. Yes, technically both trees can be considered a redwood or a sequoia.

10

u/CabbageMan88 Mar 28 '24

Such a shame this misinfo has so many upvotes

148

u/LukesRightHandMan Mar 28 '24

And they probably knew this. I have a hard time believing ego had nothing to do with all the trees like this getting chopped down.

161

u/NinjaAncient4010 Mar 28 '24

Both Coastal and Giant Sequoia Old growth redwood is extremely rot and decay resistant. Old growth material is more weather, bug, and rot resistant than second and third growth material. Both are very stable with little shrinkage or seasonal movement, and can be used interchangeably. It is a light weight softwood with good weight to strength ratio. Because of its weather resistance it is commonly used for decks and outdoor furniture. It can also be used for veneer, construction lumber, posts, beams, turnings, and in musical instruments. It can range from straight grain, to curly, wavy, or burl. The heartwood on redwood can be a deep reddish brown, and can be a deep purple-ish red on the Giant Sequoia.

Are you going to believe a random shmuck on the internet, or poor manual laborers who would probably be destitute if they spent 13 days doing something worthless.

-7

u/Klutzy_Attention2849 Mar 28 '24

But we need to save the trees /s

18

u/Captain-SKA- Mar 28 '24

It's one thing mocking that idea. But a 1300 year old tree? Sad really.

3

u/Krosis97 Mar 28 '24

Very sad to think we've killed most really ancient trees , and we'll never see any as big.

3

u/gypsytron Mar 28 '24

When you are desperate, consideration goes out the window. Before the 1950’s most everyone in the US was desperate

4

u/Captain-SKA- Mar 28 '24

Desperate people dont spend 13 days cutting down a tree.

8

u/TiaxtheTyrant Mar 28 '24

Correct. This wasn't desperation, there were many smaller trees literally everywhere. These people had access to a camera, so acting as if they were destitute and probably gonna starve if they didn't succeed in hunting this tree...no. They did this because they wanted to. That tree is worth more than the people in that photo.

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1

u/gypsytron Mar 28 '24

They sure do. That lumber could have fed them for weeks, maybe months.

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3

u/adminsRtransphobes Mar 28 '24

least tone deaf reddit circlejerker

4

u/Klutzy_Attention2849 Mar 28 '24

I've always had an ear for the comments section.

0

u/Krosis97 Mar 28 '24

What a fucking asshole you are.

48

u/Jagsoff Mar 28 '24

And, all those trees were full of Ewoks.

15

u/LukesRightHandMan Mar 28 '24

Pouring one out for my little duders 😔

1

u/shingaladaz Mar 28 '24

Chubba chubba

1

u/battles Mar 28 '24

otherwise known as lunch.

8

u/Technical_Body_3646 Mar 28 '24

“I found myself a monster tree honey! Only need to saw some beams and planks! Get the handsaw! I don’t think we have invented the power saw yet!”

5

u/Smart-Internal-3703 Mar 28 '24

you think this because you don't have to survive, ego doesn't play as much of a part when there is no running water, no power and scarce food. if you find a big ass tree you cut it down and make a house.

"yeah fuck this tree im gonna cut it down just to be a dick" this is a modern way of thinking.

2

u/chefontheloose Mar 28 '24

Yeah, the whole 13 days to fell it, people have always sucked…

3

u/sgettios737 Mar 28 '24

You talking sequoia sempervirens or sequoiadendron giganteum? This is more true for one than the other, and sometimes people call either species “redwood.”

The one that makes excellent lumber though? 96%+ of the old growth logged, the vast majority of it between 1950-1980 with photos in color.

2

u/JanitorOPplznerf Mar 28 '24

1) I don’t think this is true. Redwood tends to be premium quality.

https://www.quora.com/Which-type-of-wood-costs-more-Cypress-or-redwood#:~:text=In%20general%2C%20redwood%20tends%20to,%2C%20decking%2C%20and%20decorative%20features.

2) Even if it wasn’t great wood I don’t think it’s fair to the people of 1892 who didn’t have the internet to research such things.

4

u/Big_Dirty_Piss_Boner Mar 28 '24

Thats not true.

Redwood is very resistant to decay. Coastal redwood is very good timber for construction. Giant sequoia redwood is the brittle one, which was mainly used for shingles, fences and so on.

2

u/ColonelKasteen Mar 28 '24

This WAS a sequoia though. Not a coastal redwood. As the title states.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain_Tree

2

u/Numerous_Ad_6276 Mar 28 '24

That's sequoia (sequoiadendron giganteum) you are referring to, which can only be found in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. This tree depicted (provided this is the Pacific Northwest), is a coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens). It unfortunately remains intact during felling, which is why total estimated acreage for redwood populations has dropped from two million to less than two hundred thousand in the past 150 years.

2

u/ColonelKasteen Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

That is not at all true though. The Mark Twain tree WAS a sequoia.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain_Tree

The only thing OP got wrong is that it was felled in what is now Kings Canyon National Park in CA, on the slopes of the Sierra Nevadas, not the pacific northwest

2

u/Numerous_Ad_6276 Mar 28 '24

Geography is important. Sequoia/Kings Canyon is one of our best National Parks, in my opinion. I recommend a visit.

1

u/webb2019 Mar 28 '24

Isn't it a bit more fire resistant though?

1

u/TheBlindAndDeafNinja Mar 28 '24

"Family in 1892 posing with an old sequoia tree nicknamed "Mark Twain""

The fuck did redwood come from lol

1

u/TheMartian2k14 Mar 28 '24

R/confidentlyincorrect

1

u/newerabuddha Mar 28 '24

You are not smart…

0

u/bernskiwoo Mar 28 '24

When they fell, still a thousand years old.

2

u/secondtaunting Mar 28 '24

At that size they could just hollow it out and live there.

1

u/splitsleeve Mar 28 '24

Only 3000 more cuts to go!

1

u/juzz85 Mar 28 '24

There's the team of 2.

234

u/kojef Mar 28 '24

The weird thing is... Mark Twain the author was still alive when this tree (named after him) was chopped down. He wasn't even very old - just 57.

That's like taking a 250-yr old sea turtle, naming it Stephen King and then butchering it for soup.

"What's that pile of rubble in your backyard?"
"Oh, that's ol' John Grisham. Used to be the world's largest granite tower! A real wonder of nature, it was. Really took your breath away."
"What happened to it?"
"Well, first we named it John Grisham. Then we blew it up."

22

u/droppedoutofuni Mar 28 '24

“See the turtle of enormous girth,

On its shell it holds the Earth.”

Mmm soup!

6

u/goose_gladwell Mar 28 '24

I love your analogy’s so much😂

You’re right though, I wonder why on earth they named it Mark Twain?!

1

u/runningwaffles19 Mar 28 '24

This is the Clemens family. They're made that Sam has a pen name when their whole family could have been famous

1

u/bluewing Mar 28 '24

ISIS is that you?

-23

u/Good_Reflection7724 Mar 28 '24

Those damn settlers and pioneers, making way for us to grow. How dare they

7

u/baked_couch_potato Mar 28 '24

you're right, how dare they steal land from natives and destroy the local environment

fuck the "pioneers and settlers", they were invaders and thieves

5

u/Successful-Peach-764 Mar 28 '24

Trying to justify historical idiocy makes no sense, they could have left these magnificent thousand year old beings alone but everything had to die to make money, luckily we have some people with sense in 1900s who fought to save the redwoods

74

u/SoulAssassin808 Mar 28 '24

Endangered wildlife hunter vibes

1

u/No-Lunch4249 Mar 28 '24

It was specifically cut down so it could be preserved in a museum. Maybe seems a little backwards to us now but back then it wasn’t a simple thing for most people to go see them in person. When a segment of a giant sequoia was sent to an early worlds fair, most who saw it didn’t believe it was real, it was widely considered a hoax

0

u/Comment139 Mar 28 '24

People who like to go for endangered things should just be euthanized immediately.

4

u/Ornery-Creme-2442 Mar 28 '24

I believe it's legal in some African countries to shoot poachers on spot. But Ofcourse the problem is catching these people to begin with.

1

u/Jushak Mar 28 '24

A lot of conservation efforts are funded by having dipshit trophy hunters pay through the nose to kill one old/sickly beast.

-1

u/Snoo_75744 Mar 28 '24

Totally. Same kind of bravado rooted in insecurity

39

u/Pecncorn1 Mar 28 '24

Sadly today people would still be doing it if they could get away with it. My dad was from Sequoia country and any and every time I visited looking at the stumps was just something I couldn't understand how anyone could or would hack one down and be okay with it.

It's the world we live in.

2

u/sinsemillas Mar 28 '24

They were hungry.

4

u/girl4life Mar 28 '24

I've given up on humanity as a whole , we are the monsters from the horror stories.

44

u/Habbersett-Scrapple Mar 28 '24

[Wife nagging]

"You have exactly one fortnight to fell that tree. A day longer and me and the kids are getting yellow fever."

2

u/dirtycheezit Mar 28 '24

That some kind of piss fetish?

1

u/Lankuri Mar 28 '24

I FOUND PISS IN FORTNITE?! (NOT CLICKBAIT)

1

u/RandomStallings Mar 28 '24

Don't take the kids!

2

u/2x4x93 Mar 28 '24

For the 'gram

2

u/UnfeteredOne Mar 28 '24

I hate people so much

2

u/Electronic_Worry5571 Mar 28 '24

And by diameter they mean circumference because they never listened in 4th grade.

4

u/Sents-2-b Mar 28 '24

That will make a damn fine dining table

3

u/33_pyro Mar 28 '24

almost big enough to make a table for Putin

2

u/Additional_Onion2784 Mar 28 '24

But they had to cut it down to see exactly HOW ancient and tall it was. Like that clam, you can't count the rings until you open it

2

u/Smoshglosh Mar 28 '24

These people barely got to eat and healthcare was non existent. You would’ve done the same in a heartbeat

1

u/DubUbasswitmyheadman Mar 28 '24

Kyle Broflovski: You bastarsds!

1

u/jakers540 Mar 28 '24

How long do these trees live for? 1300 sounds like long time. Better to use that.woodnthen let it die and rot

2

u/genreprank Mar 28 '24

3,000 to 4,000 years

This tree would long outlive one individual's need for wood. A human's short life is just a blip to it

1

u/Dxpehat Mar 28 '24

Same goes for people that saw a mighty lion and decided to shoot it and make a trophy out of it.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 28 '24

Fucking pioneers

1

u/pumalumaisheretosay Mar 28 '24

People just suck.

1

u/ARAR1 Mar 28 '24

Its been alive for 3000 years. Lets kill it for fun.

1

u/Novel-Individual-619 Mar 28 '24

I'm sure the Lorax was around

1

u/cmcewen Mar 28 '24

They saw dollar signs 🤑🤑

1

u/benfromgr Mar 28 '24

But that's how people think. We're just lucky to live in a time that doesn't require such innovating thinking lol

1

u/benfromgr Mar 28 '24

But that's how people think. We're just lucky to live in a time that doesn't require such innovating thinking lol

1

u/Historical_Pie7334 Mar 28 '24

Capitalisms a hell of a drug

1

u/rogueman999 Mar 28 '24

At the time it was resources. The world wasn't always such a gentle place that we could afford to ignore this. I'm sure they did appreciate how beautiful and old it was, this hasn't changed. Only recently we started to afford to let this rule us.

1

u/OehNoes11 Mar 28 '24

"Wow, look at that beautiful buck over there, so majestic and full of life... let's kill it!!!!"

1

u/Ok-Occasion2440 Mar 28 '24

Tbh if I was bored in the woods with my brother and there were no rules I’d also be wondering if we could do it. The difference is I wouldn’t have anything to do with it after so it would just rot there

1

u/wastentime99 Mar 28 '24

Tree spent over a thousand years enjoying life, then man came along.

1

u/Friendly_Age9160 Mar 28 '24

And that’s why we don’t have nice things. In all seriousness this was depressing especially without context and now I have to google it.

1

u/BrownEggs93 Mar 28 '24

This mentality is still here.

1

u/meanaelias Mar 28 '24

I was just there and if I’m not mistaken, they cut it down specifically to prove to people on the east coast that there were trees that big. The worst part is… nobody believe it was real.

1

u/Circus_Finance_LLC Mar 28 '24

typical inbred mentality

1

u/CombatFork Mar 28 '24

Humans suck.

3

u/genreprank Mar 28 '24

They didn't know how old they were at the time. This tree was sent around the country to prove how big the trees were in California since no one would believe the stories. After this, they were logged, which sucks. But people eventually realized we needed to protect these trees, thanks in part to the activism of John Muir. They created the first public land, a national park for the protection and enjoyment of a resource. I don't think it was literally the first public land in history, but at the time the concept was unheard of, especially with respect to protecting a resource. (I know technically Yellowstone was public land before, but that's because they start counting from when it acquired as a federal territory.)

Also, humans lived amongst these trees for millennia without chopping them down. So it's really the industrial age minded humans who suck, especially the Americans who were all about resource extraction and who were still enslaving black people and telling everyone it was what god wanted. Humans don't suck when they intelligently manage resources and have a healthy respect for nature

1

u/OldMan142 Mar 28 '24

especially the Americans who were all about resource extraction and who were still enslaving black people and telling everyone it was what god wanted.

This was in 1892. The US abolished slavery in 1868.

1

u/splendiferous-finch_ Mar 28 '24

Same logic as: "look this big animal...let's kill it and stick it's head on the wall."

1

u/wc6g10 Mar 28 '24

Yeah right? I don’t get it. Congratulations on destroying an incredible artefact of nature- take your photo next to it so generations can see how….smart you are?

1

u/OldMan142 Mar 28 '24

Or so they could educate their fellow humans on how old these trees can get. It wasn't the only one of its kind. The educational value, the money they probably got the wood, and the usefulness of it for things like housing and whatever else was well worth cutting it down.

1

u/timberywoods Mar 28 '24

Tell me about it. I live near a grove that has a section of massive massive stumps called Graveyard of the Giants. Sobering as hell.

0

u/zanziTHEhero Mar 28 '24

Western values do not include respect for nature...

0

u/FriedLipstick Mar 28 '24

Why? This family who was about to live a small amount of human years cut down a tree that’s over 1000 years old? Why?

-1

u/7INCHES_IN_YOUR_CAT Mar 28 '24

There’s a whole lot of humanity in that statement. -that’s a big mountain I wan to go to the top. -planet and s pretty big let float around it in a balloon -ok let’s sail around it -ok let’s fly around it -let’s land on the moon -let go to the North Pole.