![]() 01/09/2017 at 09:28 • Filed to: None | ![]() | ![]() |
The Pioneer Cabin tree
!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
. With the Wawona tree having fallen in ‘69, your only drive-thru-Sequoia experience is probably now the Tunnel Log. Redwood tunnels remain unaffected at this time. As you were.
![]() 01/09/2017 at 09:50 |
|
I wonder if the fact that people sawed a sodding great hole through the base of it has any bearing on the fact that it fell over during a storm...
![]() 01/09/2017 at 10:03 |
|
Perhaps... In fairness, the sodding great hole was put through it some hundred and thirty years ago or more, and I think was an expansion of existing rot. Existing defects in the trunk were hollowed out into a cabin, which then became a tunnel for wagons and then cars (and then pedestrians). There’ve been two sequioas to give up, but there are at least three redwoods thriving with tunnels through - some differences in clime, local soil, and root systems seem to make the difference.
![]() 01/09/2017 at 10:23 |
|
Interesting. I suppose saying ‘this thing you did 130 years ago caused this’ sort of devalues the argument slightly ;)
Didn’t know it was a cabin before a tunnel though, neat! Would have made a hell of a batchelor pad :)
![]() 01/09/2017 at 10:24 |
|
If a giant sequoia falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, do they still get smooshed 15 miles away because it’s a goddamn giant sequoia?
![]() 01/09/2017 at 10:34 |
|
Regardless, I think the lesson is probably that if one is to hollow out a tree, a redwood is a better choice than a sequoia even if sequoias can permit a larger trunk diameter -which, since pretty much all legendarily huge redwoods and sequoias are in parks, is the very definition of useless engineering information. Not that one would typically have gone for a more pulpy/poplar-like sequoia by choice anyway - I’d imagine a redwood house/tunnel makes for much better finish on the inside.
![]() 01/09/2017 at 10:35 |
|
Probably. However, that still rates the sequoia as a medium range weapon. I think with the right kind of guidance system and a booster stage we might be able to arrange for a sequoia to fall several states away...
![]() 01/09/2017 at 11:14 |
|
Now that sounds like a useless college thesis if ever I’ve heard one! ‘On the potential interior finishes of Sequoias vs Redwoods for vehicular tunnels’...
![]() 01/09/2017 at 11:18 |
|
Best as a study topic for an architecture/botany double major. “On sealing finish of heartwood in living tree based-tunnels and design aims-guided limits to damage of cambium”. Probably not *completely* useless - you could parlay it into work as a treehouse architect since there’s some overlap.
![]() 01/09/2017 at 11:35 |
|
The more specific the better ;)
If ‘treehouse architect’ was a proper job I’d quite my current job right now...
![]() 01/09/2017 at 11:38 |
|
Being on station on and on waiting for driving calls vs. getting to design what every kid thought he’d live in when he grew up... hard choice, really.
I would observe that being a treehouse architect would probably benefit from the recently improved ability to do 3d scans - trees not being the most plumb/level/square things to build to at the best of times. Hence, the time to become a treehouse architect is now.
![]() 01/09/2017 at 18:59 |
|
I shall quit my job post-haste ;)