After More Than 100 Years, California's Iconic Tunnel Tree Is No More

[NWCorona]

Source: Gizmodo



The Pioneer Cabin Tree, a giant sequoia in Calaveras Big Trees State Park that was tunneled through in the 1880s, has fallen due to severe winter weather. It was believed to be hundreds of years old.

Since it was first hollowed out in imitation of Yosemite’s Wawona Tunnel Tree, thousands of tourists and vehicles have passed through the sequoia. The Wawona tree was killed by the process and later fell during a storm in the 1960s, but the Pioneer Cabin Tree clung on, showing signs of life well into the 21st century.

“The pioneer cabin tree was chosen because of its extremely wide base and large fire scar,” wrote park interpretive specialist Wendy Harrison in 1990. “A few branches bearing green foliage tell us that this tree is still managing to survive.”

On Facebook, where the tree’s death was first announced, park visitors shared generations of memories involving the giant sequoia. The Calaveras Big Trees Association, however, offered a simple message about the tree’s return to the earth it sprouted from so many years ago.

Read more: http://gizmodo.com/after-more-than-100-years-californias-iconic-tunnel-tr-1790964594

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Sad stuff

[angstlessk]

1. Yes, in better times we could have hope for its offspring

but with trump???

[Bucky]

6. Ha!

[Brother Buzz]

2. Believed to be hundreds of years old? Bad copy

I believe it was around a thousand year old.

[Cattledog]

4. Exactly!

[Orrex]

12. Exactly. Ten-hundred.

[Little Tich]

3. How sad. n/t

[montana_hazeleyes]

5. Damn.

There is nothing like these trees.
I 've been amongst the huge, enormous trees at Yosemite. As you stand there with them, you are in another world. Their world. The Mariposa Grove. They are the biggest and oldest beings on earth.

[Duppers]

7. Well said.

I too felt it is a spiritual place.

[zonkers]

10. Yup. The trees talk to you. They really do.

[Hoyt]

8. For sure.

[mountain grammy]

25. Agree!

The giant redwoods should turn everyone into a tree hugger.

[handmade34]

9. ...

fortunate to have walked among the Redwoods numerous times, truly sad to find one gone

There may be “sermons in stones and music in running brooks,” but grand indeed is the inspiration to be had as we stand in awe and view the majestic trees of California.... The vastness of these forests can not be realized until one has been within the silent and cathedral-like expanse they form. ~W.A. Pryal

A murmuring, fateful, giant voice, out of the earth and sky,
Voice of a mighty dying tree in the Redwood forest dense....
[T]he wood-spirits came from their haunts of a thousand years, to join the refrain;
But in my soul I plainly heard.
Murmuring out of its myriad leaves,
Down from its lofty top, rising two hundred feet high,
Out of its stalwart trunk and limbs—out of its foot-thick bark,
That chant of the seasons...
~Walt Whitman

my photos could never even come close to doing justice to the beauty and majesty


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[ET Awful]

13. Likewise. . . most of my family lives in Tulare County

Day trips to Sequoia were a regular occurrence.

Walking through that forest is a truly amazing experience, one of the few times I was literally a tree hugger . There are many of these trees where you can wrap your arms as far as they can reach around the tree, and (how to describe it . . . ) not even begin to curve your arms. I've seen cones from these trees as long as my forearm (and I have pretty long arms).

[classof56]

19. Beautiful!

Thank you for sharing these words and the photo. My heart is heavy at such a loss.

Peace.

[Zorro]

11. Standing in a redwood forest is like being in a natural cathedral

[snooper2]

14. So is it just going to rot back to the ground or will they sell it?

Imagine the kitchen tables you could cut from that

[pfitz59]

16. it will lie on the ground and be reabsorbed into the forest

as nature intends

[Plucketeer]

22. Indeed

And total re-absorption may take as many years as the leviathan lived.

[denbot]

15. Oh no!

I have happy vay-cay memories of that tree. While I try to live my life with minimum Woo, this feels like an omen of what is soon to come.

[Chakaconcarne]

17. Would probably still be there..

Had we not put a big hole in the base.

[Iggo]

18. Okay, that's enough.

[jeffreyi]

26. My first thought

[Bayard]

20. Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks

I used to live down the road from these two parks, and the redwoods were simply awe-inspiring. Unfortunately, they are starting to show some deterioration from pollution drifting up from the San Joaquin Valley.

[packman]

21. My late father-in-law got stuck in a hallowed out tree

Many, many years ago while towing a Scotty travel trailer and had to deflate his tires to get through it. He sold the trailer after he returned from his out-west tour.

[barbtries]

23. what's really sad to me

is the distinct possibility with the republicans in charge and running amok, that no tree will have the chance to get this old.

[Brother Buzz]

24. But, but trees are evil. "Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do." - Ronald Reagan, 1981

[barbtries]

27. that was not reassuring.

aargh

[FailureToCommunicate]

28. Sadly they've been cutting down these magnificent giants for a long time...

We were luckily able to stand among these amazing trees recently in and around Guerneville, Russian River area (formerly "Stumptown&quot