Pioneer Cabin Tree, Iconic Giant Sequoia With ‘Tunnel,’ Falls In Storm

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: schuyler

This tree was not in the best of shape prior to the tunnel being cut:

Thanks for that pic, which rather proves the point. The road was cut 137 years ago. There is no particular reason to believe that the road through it was responsible for its demise. Other trees of similar size and age with no alterations fall all the time. To blame people for this is a leap of faith in what is cause and effect.

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One single tree ring from this tree could tell you much about the weather patterns for its entire history.

They must preserve a few whole tree rings for study.

P

I saw the tree maybe five years ago. It was still alive and well. An article I read said the trees roots only go down a few feet. The ground was saturated and a strong wing happened. I'm glad I saw it before it fell. Those trees are majestic.

This is sad, I have seen image's of Redwood's in the US since I Was a kid and well back then used to imagine what it must be like to live in such a forrest, then along came return of the Jedi with it's horrible cannibal teddy bear's but hey they had great tree house's and the closest in the real world is that redwood forrest.

I always wanted to see that tree with the road passing through it but being on the other side of the pond never had a chance, now it is gone and I feel sorry that this old timer has passed in my lifetime, especially since they can live to two thousands years or more, then again it was a miracle it stood as long as it did, though a trunk is mostly dead wood and only provides structural support that is the key, structural support, if there was ANY indication that it was failing they really should have shored the old timer up with something, after all it WAS probably the road being cut through it that exposed the tree to insect, disease and eventual death as well as removing a massive amount of it's lower bark partially ring barking it and causing the organism to be less healthy than a solid tree.

That said a tree with a road through it was an amazing sight even if only seen on photograph's.

Very sad indeed, especially for the little kid's whom would have been the one's to really appreciate it.

originally posted by: LABTECH767

I always wanted to see that tree with the road passing through it but being on the other side of the pond never had a chance,

I believe there is more than one. By all means travel up the coast on Highway 101 and 1. It's a bucket list drive that is beautiful, curvy, with lots of stops to see and the Pacific ocean to entertain you. Highly recommended.

Trees like this one were carved into tourist attractions at a time when the general population didn't understand exactly what harm could occur to nature by this action. Yes, this carving weakened the tree, but what a long time to stand before it fell! Sequoias root systems are actually shallow and spread out (up to an acre!), making them sensitive to what happens on the ground around them. Not much was paid attention to their root system until just a few decades ago, prompting buildings around them in the national parks to be moved away from the groves. And in the national forest, destructive clear cutting around them also was one of the reasons for the Sequoia National Monument to be established, to protect groves.

Kings Canyon National Park still has a neat tree to walk through, the Fallen Monarch along the General Grant Trail.
Here's some info and nice pix The trail has many fine, interesting specimens and is parking lot close.

Even without being carved out by humans, sequoias can have naturally occurring openings in their base, called "goose pens".

Oh, yes, Hwy 101 "Avenue of the Giants" is fun. There are still awesome trees to see in Central and Northern California!

I think one of the takeaways from observing what humans have done to nature in the past out of ignorance is to think, what are we doing to nature today that future generations will look back at us as being very ignorant.

originally posted by: UberL33t
Pioneer Cabin Tree, Iconic Giant Sequoia With ‘Tunnel,’ Falls In Storm

I wonder if the huge hole that they carved through the base had anything to do with it's dramatic death?

Still, the redwoods are awesome, even if the freak is gone...

I saw this tree back in 1971 when the family took the station wagon from Washington state and drove to Disney land, stopping off everywhere there was some big name attractions, driving on the coastal scenic route in Cali.. In one of the images it looks like this tree rotted out quite a bit since '71.

Why on earth would you cut through a tree?

This is picture of the Chandelier Tree, said to have a max age of 2400 yrs. Wiki says "The California Tunnel Tree's passageway was dug in 1895 to allow horse-drawn stagecoaches to pass through the tree."

Wasnt there enough room to go around?



Why did people do that? It cant have been just to drive a horse and cart through. I just dont get it.

The Netherlands calling in.

This tree is even famous here.. When we in school were thought about the existence of those tree's..
There was always that picture !

Rip Nice tree.

originally posted by: Dizak
I wonder how much longer it would have lasted if we didn't drill a hole though it .... just to walk through..

Mother nature hollowed it out long before the white man got to the new world.....

I drove through it when i was 19 years old ( i am now 51 )
what that news does not tell you is it was being held up0 with cable wire even then .
And why did anyone think they could cut out a hole that big without killing the tree anyway .
Again even 30 years agaio it only had a few living branches on it .
that tree was nothing more then a stupid tourist attraction .
Now when i pulled into the park and started walking through the forest now that was weird .
ps by teh way tehre is another tree they cut a hole through as well in the area .

a reply to: UberL33t
That sucks

a reply to: Moohide

At the time, yes, they were intentionally being carved to dive through, a tourist novelty. The novelty of a tree being so huge that you could "drive your horse and buggy right through it!", and tourists would pay money for that novelty if it was done on private land. Later, with automobiles, tourists couldn't resist driving their cars through a giant redwood and taking pictures.

If you search for images of "redwoods" and "goose pens", you'll find some neat pix of naturally occurring openings.