Past and present views of the fallen Pioneer Cabin Tree
at Calaveras Big Trees State Park in Arnold, Calif.
Famous for a "drive-thru" hole carved into its trunk,
the giant sequoia was toppled over by a massive storm
on Sunday, January 8, 2017.
A SLOW DEATH
—Michael Ceraolo, Willoughby Hills, OH
Healthy for a thousand years,
maybe more
Capable of living at least another thousand
But that was not to be
The slow death began in the 1880s,
when the owners of the land
hollowed out a space at the base
great enough for a stagecoach to drive through,
creating a privately-owned tourist destination
to compete with a similarly-mutilated tree nearby
in what would soon become
Yosemite National Park
The 150-foot tall sequoia
soon acquired the name Pioneer Cabin,
but
the naming,
and the eventual transfer of the land
from private ownership to state control,
could not stop death from spreading upward:
"this tree can no longer support the growth of a top,
which you can see lying on the ground
if you walk through the tunnel"
"The opening also has reduced the ability
of the tree to resist fire"
but
it wasn't fire that supplied the coup de grace
"It was barely alive;
there was one branch alive at the top"
and
on January 7, 2017,
a severe storm finished it off:
Pioneer Cabin was "very brittle"
and
shattered into many pieces
upon hitting the ground
_______________________
Our thanks to Michael Ceraolo for this ode to the death of California’s Pioneer Cabin sequoia. For pictures of the tree and other tunnel trees over the years, see hyperallergic.com/350561/drive-through-trees-in-pictures/. And for Jack Ohman’s take in yesterday’s Sacramento Bee on the subject of the life after death in the tree world, go to www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorial-cartoons/jack-ohman/article126469604.html/.
Don’t forget that Steven Sanchez and Heather Judy will be reading at Avid Reader at Tower today, 2pm. Or head up to Placerville to hear Katy Brown and Loch Henson read at the Love Birds Coffee and Tea Co., 1pm. Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about this and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.
—Medusa
—Michael Ceraolo, Willoughby Hills, OH
Healthy for a thousand years,
maybe more
Capable of living at least another thousand
But that was not to be
The slow death began in the 1880s,
when the owners of the land
hollowed out a space at the base
great enough for a stagecoach to drive through,
creating a privately-owned tourist destination
to compete with a similarly-mutilated tree nearby
in what would soon become
Yosemite National Park
The 150-foot tall sequoia
soon acquired the name Pioneer Cabin,
but
the naming,
and the eventual transfer of the land
from private ownership to state control,
could not stop death from spreading upward:
"this tree can no longer support the growth of a top,
which you can see lying on the ground
if you walk through the tunnel"
"The opening also has reduced the ability
of the tree to resist fire"
but
it wasn't fire that supplied the coup de grace
"It was barely alive;
there was one branch alive at the top"
and
on January 7, 2017,
a severe storm finished it off:
Pioneer Cabin was "very brittle"
and
shattered into many pieces
upon hitting the ground
_______________________
Our thanks to Michael Ceraolo for this ode to the death of California’s Pioneer Cabin sequoia. For pictures of the tree and other tunnel trees over the years, see hyperallergic.com/350561/drive-through-trees-in-pictures/. And for Jack Ohman’s take in yesterday’s Sacramento Bee on the subject of the life after death in the tree world, go to www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorial-cartoons/jack-ohman/article126469604.html/.
Don’t forget that Steven Sanchez and Heather Judy will be reading at Avid Reader at Tower today, 2pm. Or head up to Placerville to hear Katy Brown and Loch Henson read at the Love Birds Coffee and Tea Co., 1pm. Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about this and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.
—Medusa
Rest in peace, Mighty Giant.
Photos in this column can be enlarged by clicking on them once,
then click on the X in the top right corner to come back
to Medusa.
