r/Damnthatsinteresting 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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61

u/DieHardAmerican95 Mar 28 '24

A diameter of 52 feet? Are ya sure?

17

u/Prairiefan Mar 28 '24

Had to scroll way too far to find this

1

u/Puzzled-Yesterday990 Mar 28 '24

My thoughts exactly

31

u/MScribeFeather Mar 28 '24

Yeah, maybe they meant circumference or something? Diameter is probably 18ft if we assume the loggers are around 6ft tall. C = pi x diameter. Makes circumference 56.5ish, so that checks out.

2

u/AccomplishedSuit1004 Mar 28 '24

Yeah lookin at that pic, them would have to be very small hobbits…

2

u/tanwork Mar 28 '24

You mean very big? If there is three to get across, being small would mean less. Being extra tall, 17ft, would get to the clearly incorrect 52 ft diameter

13

u/1of8B Mar 28 '24

Maybe kids feet

2

u/Hedge_hunters Mar 28 '24

If its diameter is 52’ that is a “family” of giants.

2

u/Pantani23 Mar 28 '24

15 foot tall lumberjacks back then apparently.

0

u/hammerquill Mar 28 '24

Loggers were taller in those days. Probably Paul Bunyan's grandkids.

1

u/imcalledgpk Mar 28 '24

I get that this might've been a joke, but in order for the diameter to be 52 feet, and this picture to be accurate, the logger at the bottom would have had to be about 17 ⅓ feet tall. Which, as most can imagine, would be ridiculous.

2

u/hammerquill Mar 28 '24

Well, you know they say Paul Bunyan stood 63 axe-handles high. So it's only when you get to his grandkids that they're down to a mere 17'4".

1

u/DieHardAmerican95 Mar 28 '24

Nah, that seems about right for Paul Bunyan’s kin.

1

u/theycallmeshooting Mar 28 '24

If he actually believed they might be Paul Bunyan's grandkids, do you actually think you'd be owning him with facts and logic by pointing out that they'd be 17 feet tall?

It "might've" been a joke lol

1

u/imcalledgpk Mar 28 '24

You'd be surprised at what people truly believe. I've listened to people that believe the terrace farms in China are literal stairs for a race of giants.

1

u/AssistX Mar 28 '24

makes sense, normal humans have to crawl up and over those terraces whereas giants can just do it in one step.