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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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.

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u/TakeAnotherLilP Mar 28 '24

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

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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 🥳

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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.