If you are fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to have a facebook account, I have uploaded over 800 No, more like 950 images of curious news paper reports, stories, historical papers, journals and anecdotes of large and giant sized human skeletons, and some images of bones.
https://www.facebook.com/mordecai.rodnipoffiii/photos_stream
Enjoy the show folks!
Giant bones of Castelnau France.
Argentavis, the 25 foot terror bird.
The humerus of the giant 14 foot Teratorn, found near Woodburn, Oregon in a 10,000 year old deposit.
Teratorns (from the Greek Τερατορνις Teratornis, ‘monster bird’) were very large birds of prey that lived in North and South America from Miocene to Pleistocene. They include some of the largest known flying birds. So far, at least four species have been identified:
Another form, “Teratornis” olsoni, was described from the Pleistocene of Cuba, but its affinities are not completely resolved; it might not be a teratorn at all. There are also undescribed fossils from southwestern Ecuador, but apart from these forms, teratorns were restricted to North America (Campbell & Tonni, 1983).
Some cryptozoologists such as Ken Gerhard, and Mark A. Hall have expressed interest in Teratorns as a possible explanation of anecdotal sightings of very large birds in Texas and Illinois and popularly known as Thunderbirds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teratorn
Giant Condors from California to Peru with 10 to 12, even 14 to 16 feet wingspans were reported in old news paper reports from the 1930′s to mid 1800′s, stories of condors attacking men, boys, and cattle, and able to lift a fawn or small deer and carry it in its talons were even reported. Some of these are likely quite fanciful tales, but I think they did get as big as the fossil condors indicate, the Teratorns Merriami, Woodburnensis and Incredibilis had 12 t0 18 feet wingspans in N. America and in the Pleistocene mega fauna era… Not millions of years ago, but just a few thousand years ago. Condors once flew all over America just 150 years ago, From Alaska to Patagonia. Lewis and Clark recorded 9 and 10 foot condors they shot on the clumbia river up in Oregon and Washington territory in 1806 –Today there are no Condors in Oregon, and just a handful in California –like the Grizzly bear, and the Buffalo, Condors are basically extinct. Giant 14 – 16 ft winged fossil Teratorns have been found in Oregon, at Woodburn in 10,000 year old stratum contemporary with human occupation. The average condor today in California is about 9 to 10 feet wingspan in males, and those in South American Andean Condors 10 to 11 feet wings spread, but there are records of both species exceeding 11 and 12 feet, which would make them the size of the Teratorns Merriami from La Brea Tar pits. That there were larger examples of modern condors with 13, 14, 15 and 16 feet wings spread is not beyond the limit of physics, and is supported by eye witness testimony and old historical documents, and I believe these birds, perhaps relict forms of Teratorn Condor, are responsible for the ancient and recent Thunderbird legends and sightings.
Condors in Peru, 1844 with 15 ft wingspans.
14 ft condor attacks hot air balloon.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=AG18870324.2.9
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=HNS19051113.2.23.9
Giant condors attack children and cows: http://books.google.com/books?id=w8dPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA439&lpg=PA439&dq=condor+%22sixteen+feet%22&source=bl&ots=Wj3uyTwcDq&sig=sxicsJBZDFxrnlz7dxILwu8b6sA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=P_YIUdmzFKquiQLB5IGABA&ved=0CDwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=condor%20%22sixteen%20feet%22&f=false
Ocean vulture near Chile 14 ft wings. http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=TT18910411.2.22
11 ft 7 wingspan condor attacks Southern Californian man 1906.
14 -16 ft condors in Cuyama valley, Cal. 1934 carried off deer! http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4atQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=LCIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2918,6466966&dq=condor+14-feet&hl=en
10 ft wingspan condor attacks man
condors attack man
condors shot with 15 feet wingspans, and tales of 18 ft winged birds weighing 40 lbs.
The Short Face bear, Arctodus. Stood 11 to 12 feet tall on two legs, weighed 2,000 lbs. Very large males may have reached 13 to 15 feet tall on two legs in my opinion.
The skull of the 12 ft giant bear, Arctodus compared to normal brown bear.
The San Francisco Call, Sept 14, 1902 pg 3
Arctodus, the twelve foot high. Photo by Bone Clones.
Giant Arctodus, Tibia is fully one third longer and broader than a modern Polar bear’s.
12 foot Giant bear. The Arctodus.
Arctotheriumwas an immense bear from South America. Fossil bone estimates place it at about 11-12 feet tall and 2,500-3,500 lbs.
Arctotherium 3.5 meters tall ( 11 1/2 feet)
Arctotherium size estimate 11 – 12 feet and over 3,500 lbs. You wouldn’t want to meet this creature in the woods. Looks like the scariest monster out of any Lucas or Spielberg film– but they actually existed.
An even larger specimen, Indarctos has been found near John Day, Oregon. Some estimates place it at 16 feet tall and over 4,000 lbs. I imagine the very largest short face bears grew as tall as 15 and 16 feet.
I recon, a hypothetical bear this large could only be taken down by Goliath sized people. Or people with incredible bravery!
There are credible reports of immense Kodiak and brown bears measuring 12 to 14 feet tall, with skins over 13 and 14 feet long. Such bears were recorded in Alaska in the late 1800′s and early 20th century.
Recreation, Volume 22 George O. Shields, American Canoe Association, League of American Sportsmen – 1905
Big game shooting Volume 1 Page 361 Clive Phillipps Wolley Sir Samuel White Baker 1894
Polar bears 11 to 13 feet tall and over 2,000 lbs have also made it into the record books.
Arthur R. Dubs of Medford, Oregon. Shot this immense 11 foot 2 inch tall Polar bear , which weighed over 2,000 lbs. This giant’s skin measured 11 ft 4.
Mr. Dub’s trophy was displayed at the Seattle World’s fair, 1962.
Polar bears 13 feet long were recorded as early as the 1590′s.
Forest Park, Portland Ore.
Some tall 200 foot fir trees in Macleay Park. Oct, 2008
One of several Balch creek giant Douglas fir. Oct, 2008
Macleay Park-Forest Park, Portland. Sep. 2011. One of the larger trees I measured in the Balch creek canyon. 5 ft 6 inches diameter, at 4 1/2 ft. and 242 feet tall. May be one of the tallest trees in Portland, and probably over 300 years old. Forest Park was logged extensively in the 1880-1940′s, and most of the forest is only 50 to 100 years old — with pockets of 200 to 500 year old giants.
A giant Douglas fir at Deception Pass State Park, Whidbey Island, Washington state. This tree was about 160 – 180 feet to a broken, 2 foot diameter blown top. It was about 8 feet diameter 5 feet above ground. This tree May be over 500 years old!
This giant tree must have originally been over 200 feet, maybe 250 before losing its top and was one of the thickest trees I saw on Whidbey Island. Mere cord wood compared to the largest giants logged in this area which topped 300+ feet.
I stand beneath it for scale.
Other giant Douglas fir were 5 to 6 feet thick, some were over 200 feet tall. Deception Pass State Park, Anacortes, Wa. 2010
Deception Pass State Park. 2010
Historically Reported Douglas-Fir Exceeding 300 and 400 Feet
300 ft “Most conspicuous among the productions of Oregon are the timber trees These are truly giants Near Astoria in the primeval forest there are fir trees over forty feet in circumference three hundred feet long and rising to the height of one hundred and fifty feet without giving off a single branch.” – Recent exploring expeditions to the Pacific and the South Seas… John Stilwell Jenkins – 1853 pg 430.
Logging a 250 ft 8 ft diameter Fir 1926. Near Montesano, Wa.
Common sized Timber in Giant Old Growth Douglas fir stands.
300 ft Oregon City, OR, 1850. Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society – pg. 207, 1916.
300 ft Douglas-fir that was felled in 1930 near Longview, Washington. This 600 year old tree was 300 feet tall and produced 30,000 board feet of lumber. http://community.woodmagazine.com/t5/Paul-Meisel/Tree-Cookies/ba-p/227383
Oregon fir date unknown
Saddle Mountain, Clatsop Oregon 1909
300 foot tall fir tree, logged Washington State
300 ft “Douglas fir trees were cut on the site of the city of Vancouver 300 feet in height and 11 feet in diameter.” The Encyclopedia Americana By Scientific American, inc 1903.
Logging in Seymour Valley, near Vancouver 1924
300 ft When Sewell Moody (1834-1875) arrived on Burrard Inlet, trees were still so plentiful that they could be felled directly into the water and floated to the mills. The waterway of Burrard Inlet, too, was an almost perfect natural harbour for sailing ships. Sometimes up to six or seven vessels loaded at once at the Moodyville docks. According to historian Derek Pethick, the captain of the British ship Jeddo wrote the following description to his company’s agent in about 1866:
“This is, without exception, one of the finest harbours I ever saw. It is locked in all round with high lands, covered with trees 300 feet [91 m] high, so that no wind or sea can hurt ships, and very easy of access for the largest ships afloat, and good anchorage. It is, likewise, a good place for loading. The ships can moor head and stern about half a cable’s length (92 m) from the mills in six fathoms (11 m) of water.”
Moodyville Mill 1872
300+ft William Clark, March 10, 1806. 39 feet girth, 6 ft above ground, estimated 200 feet to first limbs.
David Douglas, the Scottish botanist.
Giant fir trees measured near Astoria, 1841
Cutting a 300 foot fir, Technical World Magazine 1907
300+ft “At the Pan-American Exposition there was on exhibition from Snohomish County a section of a fir tree which had been considerably over a hundred yards long and two hundred feet to the first limb. It was 920 years old and scaled 75,000 feet of lumber.” – Pearson’s magazine, 1905 pg. 113.
300 +ft What E.S. had seen on his first trip to Ostrander [Washington State] would, within a few short years, make him a “square timber” expert, and the long logs became his ticket to freedom. “Prevailing timber is fir, in size up to 8_ feet diameter and over 300 feet high in some specimens. Some would make saw logs over 225 feet long.” -E.S. Collins
In fact, these unparalleled Douglas firs became Ostrander’s signature logs. They were destined for keels and masts, Mississippi barges, the Panama Canal, and the Welland Canal in Canada. http://www.collinsco.com/history/In-Depth.php
A Snohomish giant fir, 1890
Puget Sound Fir, 60 ft circumference
304 ft Jedediah Smith Redwoods State park. 13.5 dia
305 ft Woss Lake on northern Vancouver Island. 18 ft diam.
Giant fir, Tacoma Lumber Co.
305 ft NW CA. 2007
300 ft. Est. orig. ht of Clatsop Fir, Clatsop, OR. Blown down 1962,-
200.5 ft to broken top 4.5 ft dia. Breast ht diam 15.48 ft.
Clatsop fir 1941
306 ft West of Roseburg, OR. Esquire-The Wrestless man. 2004
306 ft “The largest tree that I have had cut was one measuring 9 feet at the but including the bark and 306 feet from the but to the top.” – American agriculturist – Volume 22 – Page 272, 1863
307 ft. Finnegan’s Fir, OR. Blown down 1975. Officially listed at 302 ft.
Giant Fir, Scappoose Ore. date unknown
308 ft “The low divide between the Columbia and Elokomon Rivers was covered at this time by a dense forest of the spruce and Douglas fir and so thick was the growth that the fir trees would go up for 100 feet without a limb and not a ray of the sun could reach the ground The trees grew very tall and one a short way outside the forest on the edge of a little prairie being measured with instruments was found to be about 308 feet in height.” – Cathlamet on the Columbia: recollections of the Indian people and short … By Thomas Nelson Strong, 1906 pg 107
309 ft British Columbia, displayed at International Exhibition. By Aeneas McDonell Dawson –1881
310 ft “We get our last coupon of rough road just beyond Claquato a few miles of which brings us to the second crossing of the Chehalis at its junction with the Skookum Chuck strong water another pretty spot where we dine. Not more than three miles from here is a fallen tree three feet in diameter at the butt and 290 in length. Another tree in an adjoining county measures eleven feet in diameter and 310 in length and we hear of two more being fourteen feet in thickness which is pretty well for firs and cedars – All over Oregon and Washington: observations on the country, its scenery …By Frances Fuller Victor – 1872 – pg 233.
310 ft Little Rock, Wa. – Miscellaneous publication, Issue 295- By United States. Dept. of Agriculture, United States. Science and Education Administrationa – 1938- pg. 97.
311 ft 9 feet diameter.—Housing By National Housing AssociationPublished 1935.
311 ft 9’4” diam. 50,000 board feet, 434 years old, cut in Washington State, Aug. 16, 1926.Spirit of the Lakes by David K Peterson, 2004.
311 ft Aberdeen, Wash. 1929 Appleton Post Crescent
312 ft Felled in 1886, Georgia St. Vancouver, BC – [Vancouver Art Gallery] Fir tree measured 13 feet diam at breast height, and 4 feet in diam 200 feet from butt.
13 Foot tree stump Georgia street Vancouver, 1886.
Giant fir Georgia street, Vancouver 1886
Georgia street fir, first store. 1886
312 ft “The Hunters & Serjt Pryor informed us that they had Measured a tree on the upper Side of quick Sand River 312 feet long and about 4 feet through at the Stump.” The Journals of Lewis and Clark. April 5, 1806.
11 ft diameter Fir Cherry Valley, Wa. 1898
315 ft Skagit River, alluvial bottom. Diameter 70 inches inside bark, 7 feet from the ground. Bark 4 inches thick. 253 annual rings. The total height of this tree was 315 feet. Two 52-foot logs were utilized from this tree, scaling 14,000 feet B. M., and 5,745 feet B. M. of log timber marketable at eastern mills were left in the top, making a total of 19,745 feet B. M. of log timber in the tree. The Washington Forest Reserve by Horace Beemer Ayres, Geological Survey (U.S.) 1899. pg 295.
Foster, Oregon date unknown
315 ft Coquitlam River watershed at Meech Creek, BC. Now 309 feet (94 m) to a dead top.
Meech Creek Fir 310-315 feet tall
Temple Giant, Seymour Valley, 11 ft 6 diameter 300 feet tall. 1996
316 ft A fir tree felled measured 316 feet to the top most branch. The Year-book of facts in science and art By John Timbs, 1860- Pg. 35
318 ft NW CA. 2007
318 ft A fallen fir tree measured by Lewis and Clark, Saturday, April 5th, 1806, not far from fort Vancouver [near Gresham]. Only 3.5 feet diameter. [Possibly Sitka Spruce]
318 ft “Other Douglas firs in Washington notable for great height include one near Hoquiam 318 feet high” – Miscellaneous publication, Issue 295- By United States. Dept. of Agriculture, United States. Science and Education Administrationa – 1938- pg. 97.
320+ft Est. orig. ht of Red Creek Fir, Vancouver IS, BC. 239 ft to broken top, diameter of broken top 2.95 ft . Diam at breast ht 13.9 ft
Red Creek Fir today
320 ft Koksilah Giant, British Columbia–blown down 1979 after clearcut. Standing portion, and blown top both measured by Dr. Al Carder in the 1970′s, and confirmed to stand 320 feet tall. (Forest Giants, Carder pg 1-10).
Koksilah Giant 320 feet tall.
Koksilah giant 320 ft
Koksilah giant, fallen.
320 ft Olympic Natl Park WA. 16 ft dia
320 ft James Irvine Fir — Prairie Creek State Park/ James Irvine Trail, Cal.
320 ft “I have measured one felled on the neighbouring mainland [Near San Juan Island] which measured 320 feet in height with a diameter of more than 5 feet.” Gardeners chronicle & new horticulturist, Volume 32 – Nov. 2, 1872 – pg 1,452.
320 ft “One of the wonders of the American forests is the fir tree of Puget Sound. The trees average 200 feet high, and some specimens have been cut that measured 320 feet in length and twelve feet in diameter at the base, with a straight and well proportioned log length of ninety feet to the first limb.” – The Canadian horticulturist: Volumes 5-6 – Page 94 Fruit Growers’ Association of Ontario – 1882
320 ft “The size of the fir trees and the number growing upon given acres in good timber districts is almost incredible to residents upon the Atlantic slope of the continent. Trees often measure 320 feet in length, more than two-thirds of which are free from limbs.” -Annual Report to the Commissioner of Agriculture for the year 1878 pg. 539 – by United States Dept. of Agriculture – 1879
12 ft 9 inch giant fi cross section 1946
321 ft A [fir] tree cut by Mr A.J. Dufur was 6 feet 4 inches in diameter 30 feet from the base and 321 feet long. – Report of the Secretary of Agriculture By United States. Dept. of Agriculture – 1875 – pg. 181.
321 ft Humboldt Fir — Prairie Creek State Park, Cal.
Chehalis Timber 1909
321 ft Cathcart, Wa. — The Washington Forest Reserve by Horace Beemer Ayres, Geological Survey (U.S.) 1899. pg. 300
Cathcart Washington fir, 321 feet tall.
321 ft “Thus, of yellow-fir (Abies grandis) two sections were shown taken from the same tree, the first six feet ten and a half inches in diameter exclusive of bark, taken “one hundred and thirty feet from the ground;” the other five feet ten inches, taken “two hundred feet from the ground,” with the statement that the tree was three hundred twenty-one feet high, fifteen and three-quarters feet in diameter at the butt,…” International Exhibition, 1876 By United States Centennial Commission pg. 6, 1880.
1918, Oregon, USA — Three loggers, two on a springboard and one in the undercut, pose by a large Douglas fir ready for felling. Oregon. — Image by © CORBIS
322 ft ** Near Eugene Oregon, NE of Lowell. A 500 yr old grove of Douglas Fir averaging about 300 feet in height. The tallest measured at 322.—Moon Oregon, pg 202, by Elizabeth Morris, Mark Morris. 2007 –Agenda: see Dr. Robert Zybach’s report. Tree was re-estimated at 290 feet tall by him.
322.8 ft west of Roseburg, OR. 8.6 ft diam. June, 2011.
Tree discovered by M. Taylor, C. Atkins, MD Vaden and company June of 2011. Photo by MD Vaden.
322.8 feet tall to live top.
Tree discovered by M. Taylor, C. Atkins, MD Vaden and company June of 2011. Photo by MD Vaden.
“Between the four of us, and a couple of other men who Michael explored the area with in 2011, here are some new tallest Douglas Fir discoveries”:
322.8 ft. / 8.0′ Coos County / BLM
317.6 ft. / 7.1′ Coos County / BLM Alder Creek
317.5 ft. / 10.1′ Coos County / BLM Tioga Creek
317.2 ft. / 6.7′ Coos County / BLM North Fork Cherry Creek
314.0 ft. / 9.9′ Coos County / BLM Tioga Creek
310.0 ft. / 8.1′ Coos County / BLM Susan Creek
309.3 ft. / 9.0′ Coos County / BLM Park Creek
307.0 ft. / 7.0′ Coos County / BLM Tioga Creek
306.0 ft. / 7.2′ Coos Counnty / BLM Park Creek
303.0 ft. / N/A Coos County / BLM Tioga Creek
302.0 ft. / N/A Coos County / BLM Park Creek
See link by professional Arborist and tree hunter M.D. Vaden:
http://www.mdvaden.com/douglas_fir.shtml
A More complete list of tallest living Douglas fir by big tree hunter Michael Taylor:
327.3 99.76 13.2 3.35 Brummett Fir...AKA Williams Fir. Once over 100m. Original high ground level burried by a retaining wall. Coos County, Oregon 322.8 98.34 8.6 2.62 Noname, SW Oregon. Careful tripod mounted Impulse 200LR measurement by Chris Atkins and Mike Hanuschik. 321.9 98.12 7.0 2.13 Black Thorn, SW Oregon. Vigorous Live Top. 319.5 97.39 8.5 2.59 Hunewell Honey. Discovered By Taylor. Atkins October 2011 measurement. Live Top. 319.1 97.25 8.1 2.57 Memnon 332, SW Oregon. Live Top. 317.6 96.79 7.0 2.13 Edge Fir, Coos County, SW Oregon. Site Altitude 900'. Tripod mounted Impulse 200LR measurement. 317.5 96.77 6.5 1.98 Noname. SW Oregon. Site Alititude 2300'. Preliminary. 317.2 96.68 10.1 3.07 Noname. SW Oregon. Two tops, the other 95.5m. 314.0 95.70 9.9 3.01 Noname. SW Oregon. Dbh measured on high side of ground level. 310.7 94.70 7.5 2.23 Noname. Redwood National Park. Measured with Impuluse 200LR by Chris Atkins & Steve Sillett 310.0 94.48 8.0 2.54 Noname. SW Oregon. Dbh measured on high side of ground level. 309.3 94.27 8.5 2.59 Coyote Gulch Tree, Park Creek Watershed, Coos County, Oregon. Preliminary handheld. 308.0 94.27 5.5 1.67 Noname. Prairie Creek State Park. Discovered by Atkins-Vaden. 308.0 93.80 8.0 2.54 Noname, SW Oregon. Dbh only an eye estimate. 307.0 93.60 5.5 1.67 Noname. Prairie Creek. Browns Creek junction with Prairie Creek. Discovered by Chris Atkins in 2010. 306.0 93.57 7.0 2.13 Broken Lip Fir. Trailhead 1 Mile South of Wagner Trailhead. Near junction with Prairie Creek Trail. Discovered by Hildebrant 306.0 93.57 3.5 1.07 Flagpole, Prairie Creek SP. 305.0 92.96 N/A N/A Noname. Brown's Creek Trailhead. Preliminary. 305.0 92.96 N/A N/A Noname. SW Oregon. Preliminary. 303.0 92.35 8.4 2.56 Noname, SW Oregon. Preliminary. 303.0 92.35 N/A N/A Noname, Prairie Creek Tributary. Termite infested, rotten trunk. Grows near Ravens Tower, tallest sitka spruce. 302.0 92.04 13.0 3.96 Rex Nemorensis. Quinalt Lake, Olympic National Park. Volume is 10,200 cubic feet, 4th largest known. 301.0 91.74 13.2 4.02 Ol' Jed, only recorded douglas fir over 10,000 ft³ in California. Now just a dead snag.
See Michael Taylor’s full page on record Douglas fir height:http://www.landmarktrees.net/douglas.html
324 ft Chehalis, Lewis Co. Wa. Oak Tribune 1934
324 ft Wa–900 yr old, Times Recorder, Nov. 1935
325 ft Stanley Park, BC 1916, 10 ft diam. Felled for safety reasons.
325 ft Douglas Fir in Stanley Park, BC, Toppled in 1926, 800 years old.
325 ft “Fir trees two hundred and two hundred and fifty feet high, and six and seven feet in diameter, are seldom out of view in these forests; eight and ten feet in diameter and three hundred feet high are not at all uncommon. Trees of fourteen and fifteen feet in diameter are not difficult to find, and a fallen tree near Olympia measures three hundred and twenty-five feet in length, and another, at a distance of ninety feet from the root, measures seven feet in diameter.” – Annual Report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office to the Secretary of the Interior – Page 73 by United States General Land Office – Public lands – 1867
325 ft Skagit Co. Washington. Illabot Creek, 5 miles east of Rockport. 10 ft diam. Measured as a fallen tree on the property of Henry Martin in 1897. http://www.skagitriverjournal.com/Upriver/Sauk-Ill/Martin/Martin2-FamilyDocs.html
Mr. Henry Martin, who measured a 325 foot fir on his property near Rockport, Wa.
325 ft Near Darrington, Wa. 325 feet. – Miscellaneous publication, Issue 295- By United States. Dept. of Agriculture, United States. Science and Education Administrationa – 1938- pg. 97.
Giant fir in Washington, date unknown.
326 ft Queets Valley, Washington 1988. 6.7 feet diameter.
328 ft Sedro Woolley, WA 1906. 17 ft diam — “Sedro-Woolley, Key to Upper Skagit,” Bellingham Herald column, Sept. 30, 1906.
Sedro Woolley giant fir 17 ft diameter
329 ft Brummet Creek Tree, 4.4 ft diam c. 1950, blown down.
330 ft According to the United States Department of Agriculture, Technical Bulletin published in October, 1930, there is a standing Douglas Fir near Little Rock, Washington, which is 330 feet in height, with a diameter of approximately 6 feet.
330+ft Est orig. ht of tree, from mast 304 feet tall 28 in diam at butt, 12 in diam at top single Douglas Fir spar used as Radio mast in Portland. Sagas of the Evergreens, By Frank H. Lamb, Published 1938.
Giant Spruce topped
330+ft Elma, Wa. A felled Douglas fir, 5 feet 2 inches in diameter was cut into seven logs each 40 feet long. The tree was 221 years old according to ring count. – Monthly bulletin By Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen. 1918, pg. 21.
300+ft “My Dad said he topped a tree at 240 feet up near Grisdale and he said that was much higher then normal. Measured with a new passrope that was known length not speculation.”… We yarded this one in 84. I remember it was 12 foot and it had 7 logs in it. The first three cuts were 40s. Some of the top cuts were shorter though. I’d guess to the tip top it was pushing 300 but not over.The one my Dad topped that I mentioned he said was about 30 inches where he topped it. He said they had to put extensions on all the guylines it was so high. Rarely he said they would go over 200 feet [topped].07-24-2012, 11:29 PM http://www.arboristsite.com/forestry-logging-forum/204269-3.htm Biggest & Tallest Doug fir and Sitka Spruce & redwoods
12 foot diam,300 foot giant fir Olympic forest, Wa. 1984.
300+ft In the early days of logging spars with the required 20 in. to 30 in. top at a height between 200 and 250 feet. The Commonwealth forestry review: Volume 37 — 1958
Axel Hallgren, a high climber, topped a big 300 foot fir at 240 feet. Oregon
Axel about to ascend 240 feet up the giant fir.
330+ ft Spar tree 250 feet The Sibley journal of engineering: Volume 35 – Page 71 – Cornell University. Sibley College – 1921
300+ft There are other authentic measurements of Douglas firs with a total height of over 300 feet. One fir was topped for a spar tree at 256 feet above the ground.. American forests: Volume 68, American Forestry Association –1962 pg 66.
300+ft In any event, when the top falls the “stump”, sways and weaves with great violence
and the climber must hold with tooth and spur, and this experience anywhere from 150 (46 metres) to 280 feet (85 metres) above ground is racking in the extreme. The tree that Hallgren scaled that day must have been about 300 feet (91 metres) high, for it is 240 feet (73 metres) from the ground to the point where he is shown cutting off the top. It was six feet (1,8 metres) in diameter 10 feet (3 metres) from the ground. This tree was unusually high one, for the top is usually out off these high lead trees at from 160 to 200 feet (49 to 61 metres) from the ground. http://hem.bredband.net/guha002/index.htm
332 ft Douglas fir 332 feet, Coos County, Oregon – The Southern lumberman: Volume 217 pg 160, 1968
Spar fir
330+ft Spar fir trees cut at 250 & 275 feet tall.- Chronicle Telegram, Feb. 14, 1921 pg. 2
Spar tree cut at 275 feet.
schenectady gazette feb 2-1921pg-5
335+ ft Spar fir 285 ft tall. – Ironwood Times, The, Mar. 9, 1923 pg. 1.
335 ft- “It may not be generally known that many specimens of fir found on the shores of Puget Sound equal in height the infamous giant Sequoia or “Big tree” of California, for firs have been cut down which were over 325 feet in length from topmost branch to the edge of the cut, not including eight or ten feet of the trunk left standing above the roots.” “Engineering In The Logging Industry In The American Pacific Northwest” – Cassier’s Magazine Vol. XXIX April, 1906 No. 6
Giant Log, Mineral Wa. July, 1936. 14,500 market board feet.
335 ft “The largest tree measured by the writer was thirteen feet in diameter and had an estimated height of nearly 300 feet. One observer states that he measured a tree in Washington 335 feet high and fifteen feet in diameter.” – The Forester, Volumes 5-6By American Forestry Association 1899 pg. 54.
339 ft Toledo, Ore – spar tree 214 ft tall 34 inches at cut, severed section was 125 feet. (Forest Giants of the World Past and Present pgs 1 -10). Parks & recreation, Volume 10. American Institute of Park Executives, 1927 pg 263.
327 – 339 ft Doerner Fir [Brummitt Fir], Coos Co. OR. 11.5 ft Diameter at 4.5 feet. Estimated age 500-600 yrs old. 339 ft to lowest end of trunk. Tallest Known Living Douglas fir as of 2012. Current height 327 feet to a dead top, at average ground level. Measured 329 feet tall in 1988, further 10 feet of trunk slopes down hill, making entire height of tree at lowest end, 339 feet in 1988.
Brummit fir / Doerner fir 335′
Doerner Fir
Doerner fir Photo by Darryl Llyod http://www.longshadowphoto.com/tree.htm
Doerner fir
See more: http://www.mdvaden.com/doerner_fir.shtml
340 ft – Puget Sound, 42 ft around. Over 79,218 board feet, age 300 years 340 feet high. Spring of 1904 Mccormick Lumber Co. Lewis Co, WA Sent to St. Louis Exhibition.–The Indian Forester – Page 320 Felled near Pe El, Wa.
Giant tree 42 feet around, and 340 feet tall, felled in 1904 near Pe El, Washington. Sent to St. Louis Exhibition.
340-50 ft – A Washington yellow fir tree 7 feet 11 in diameter and 340 feet long – The School Journal, Published 1893 E.L. Kellogg & Co. pg. 85 [This tree was also described as 350 feet in total height: Chicago: Its History and Its Builders--Josiah Seymour Currey, 1918 . pg 78]
340 ft “Under date of December 5th 1919 the West Coast Lumbermen’s Association kindly offered the Society a Douglas Fir flag pole to range from 150 to 340 feet delivered free to this city with the compliments of that association.” – New York Historical Society quarterly bulletin, Volume 3 – 1920 pg 130.
341 ft 6 km N of Cloverdale, BC. Felled by loggers in 1917, Measured by
Dr Al Carder and father as a boy. http://www.natureconservancy.ca/en/what-you-can-do/plan-your-legacy/nls-donor-spotlight/donor-spotlight-al-carder.html
The young Al Carder.
Dr. Al Carder, now 102 years old. The Eminent Author and researcher of Giant Trees. His excellent research into the largest historic Douglas fir trees was foundational for my own research project.
Dr. Al Carder’s finest work, “Forest Giants of the World, Past and Present” published 1995. This is the finest and most interesting research work on the true height and girths of the largest trees ever recorded by historical man.
http://www.amazon.com/Forest-Giants-World-Past-Present/dp/1550410903
347 ft Astoria, Oregon Douglas Fir cut for flagpole 251 feet tall, Panama-Pacific Exposition.– Pamphlets on Wood Preservation, 1900-1915, University of California.
348 ft “Forest Service records a Douglas Fir with a measured height of 380 feet, and I, personally, have seen many over 300, one 348.” By Joseph T. Hazard, Pacific Crest Trails from Alaska to Cape Horn–1948, pg. 64
350 ft Mossyrock, Wa. 1939 A fir tree 350 feet tall, and 11 feet in diameter was felled and sent to Olympia. It scaled 40,000 Board feet – Centralia Daily Chronicle, July 19, 1939, pg. 1.
Snohomish Fir Tree, 50 feet circumference, 91,260 board feet.
350 ft “Recently a log from one these fallen firs was taken to Washington, where it was on exhibition, It was part of a six hundred-year-old tree which had attained a height of 350 feet. The log weighed 60 tons and will furnish 16,690 feet of timber.” Ireton Ledger, Sep. 5, 1935 pg. 3
350 ft “Largest Tree in State,” 350 ft tall, 16 dia. – Sedro Woolley, Wa. May 8,1902. Darius Kinsey photo collection – Kinsey photographer, 1978 —pg. 152-153
Giant Douglas Fir, 1902. 350 feet tall. Kinsey photographer pg 152-153
Kinsey Photographer pg 152 – 153 “350 feet tall” fir tree.
Darius Kinsey, the early photographer.
Logging 10 ft diameter fir
“The Kinsey Photographer.”
350 ft “Many trees, each over 280 feet tall, have been measured about Blaine [Wa]. Others in that vicinity and elsewhere reach to a height of 350 feet. There are
without doubt large numbers of trees in Washington over 300 feet high.” – Forest Leaves – pg. 162 by Pennsylvania Forestry Association, American Forestry Association, 1890.
350 ft – “In Skagit County is a forest of Douglas pine and white cedar in which there are many trees reaching 325 feet high, and some of them are fully 350 feet high.”
Forest Leaves – Page 162 by Pennsylvania Forestry Association, 1922.
1935 Tacoma camp, 5 logs 109 car train. 700 year old fir, 300 ft tall
350+ft “The trees of our forests, owing to the favorable influences referred to, are of rich, dark green foliage, rapid growth to enormous proportions, commonly from 3 to 6 feet in diameter, 350 feet high, sometimes more, and 185 feet to the first limb. This I state from actual measurements from trees prone on the ground.” Fifth Biennial Report to the Board of Horticulture – Oregon Board of Horticulture,1898 pg. 545
350 ft Trees from 250 to 350 feet high are common sights. A fir tree recently cut near Clallam Bay was 13 feet in diameter at the butt, and a 100-foot log cut therefrom, which was seven feet in diameter at the top, scaled 84,100 feet of lumber. Report by Washington (State). Bureau of Statistics, Agriculture and Immigration – 1896.
14 foot fir diameter fir trees logged in Washington
350 ft. Fir, Westholme, Vancouver Is. BC. Blown down 1913,
1500 yr old, 17-dia. 180 ft to blown top, and 150 ft to first branch.
Westholme tree, blown over 1913
Westholme Tree 17 ft diameter
Westholme Tree 1912
Westholme tree late 1800′s.
350+ft est. orig. Ht of Queets Fir, Queets River, WA. 202 ft to broken top 6.7 ft dia. Breast ht. diameter is 15.9 ft. Over 1,000 years old.
Queets fir today
Estimated Height of Queets fir, before top blew off. Over 350 feet
350 ft Est. Height. Fir cut down in King Co. Wa measured 9 ft in diameter at the butt, and 4 ft 8 in at the top, 186 ft long, and scaled 64,000 feet of lumber. – Report By Washington (State). Bureau of Statistics, Agriculture and Immigration, 1896. pg. 33
350+ft Near Latourell, Oregon. An immense grove of giant firs situated in a protected flat surrounded by high bluffs, between Bull creek and the Hood river. Trees estimated at 350 to 400 feet high with circumference estimated over 60 feet at 3 feet above ground. Portsmouth Herald, July 18, 1900 pg. 5
350+. a “Douglas Pine” Dr. Forbes measured that was 320 ft to broken branches, and as thick as his waist where the trunk broke. He made out the average Douglas Pine ranged somewhat over 300 feet in height in British Columbia, based on measured trees. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society Volume VIII, 1863-4.
Giant felled fir, B.C.
350 ft “On the site of what is now Vancouver city–the present terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway–and in the neighborhood of that town, on Burrard Inlet, was a renowned group of these trees, and “many still standing around the city, are from 250 to 350 feet high and 12 feet in diameter at the base, or about 36 feet in girth,” growing so close together that the trees almost seem to touch each other…” – The Wilderness and Its Tenants – By John madden 1897, pg. 168.
Felling fir, Capilano Timber Co. 1920
350 ft “There the trees, crowded close together, rise to a height of 300 feet; indeed, lumbermen report trees 350 feet high, with trunks 11 feet in diameter, free of branches for 200 feet, and with hardly any perceptible taper up to that height.” – The Humeston New Era, July 26, 1916 pg. 4
A forest of Giant Douglas fir Near Port Angeles, Wa. Late 1880′s.
350 ft “Firstly, it may be said that previous to the year 1885, the place now occupied by this city [Vancouver] was a wilderness of gigantic trees, some of them being fully twelve feet diameter a few feet above the ground, and from 300 to 350 feet in height, all of which had to be cut down and rooted out before a house could be built.” – 3800 Miles Across Canada – By John Wilton Cuninghame Haldane 1908, pg 224.
Fraser Valley Logging
352 ft Lynn Valley, N Vancouver BC, Felled in 1907, 9 ft 8 in diameter. 220 feet to lowest branch. This tree contained 16 logs of wood, 16 feet per log. Top 92 feet discarded. Height 352 feet including 4 ft stump. Details are recounted by historian Walter Mackay Draycott of Lynn Valley, BC. “Early Days in Lynn Valley” pg. 29.
Lynn Valley log 1912. 9 ft 8 inch diameter
Lynn Valley fir 1912
355 ft “The tallest tree on record in Canada today is a Douglas fir in Strathcona Park
on Vancouver Island. It is over 108 m tall.” — Countdown Canada: A conceptual Geography study, By Alderdice, Roy, 1941-, Sled, George, 1941-, Vass, Ben, 1934-Published 1977 Macmillan of Canada
358 ft Cloverdale, Surrey, BC. Tallest Fir measured by a BC forester.
Discovered in 1881 by William Shannon, while constructing Hall’s Prairie Rd.
Measured after being Felled, 1,100 yr old. 11.5 ft dia. 358 feet tall. (Forest Giants, Carder pg 1 -10).
360 ft “…Douglas-firs along Oregon’s Millicoma River, topped 360 feet.” – Analysis of a Pre-existing Condition: the Northwest’s Old-growth Forests, by Chuck Bolsinger Published: Saturday, October 15, 2011, 12:03 PM The Oregonian.
360 ft “Till recently it was by no means rare to meet in the pine groves of Washington and Oregon specimens of the yellow pine 260 and even 360 feet high.” The Earth and Its Inhabitants …: The United States – Page 419, Elisée Reclus, Ernest George Ravenstein, Augustus Henry Keane – 1893
Giant fir, Burrard Inlet
360 ft “The timber began to get larger and by the time we had traversed three miles into the trail we viewed countless numbers of gigantic fir trees growing not less than fifty feet apart and towering at least 360 feet into the air.” Deming Trail, Whatcom Co. Wa. Bellingham Herald – July 10, 1909
Giant trees, Mt Baker Highway 1910′s
Mt Baker Highway 1927
375 ft Vancouver Island, BC. – Mason City Globe-Gazette, Nov. 4, 1961 pg. 20.
300-400 ft “Sir Edward Belcher and many others describe the pine trees in the Oregon territory to be from two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet in height and from twenty to forty feet in circumference while Sir George Simpson speaks of having seen trees near the Columbia River from three to four hundred feet high. The latter must be about the largest trees in the world.”- Transactions of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, Volume 4 – 1843
300-400 ft The gigantic fir trees of Washington are often between 300 and 400 feet high, a single one sometimes furnishing 100,000 feet of lumber. To eastern eyes the stumps left standing look very strange. They are from five to fifteen feet high. –Newark Daily Advocate Sep. 27, 1889.
A Cowlitz Co. Washington fir, 301 feet tall and 36 ft circ. 1909
400 ft Est ht. [Astoria, Oregon c. 1846] “There was a monstrous fir pine that had been blown up by the roots, and it looked as if it had been down for many years. Some of the boys measured it and reported that it was twelve feet in diameter at the butt and three hundred and thirty feet in length to where it had been sawed off to make a roadway. It was eighteen inches in diameter where it had been sawed off ; so the boys concluded that it must have been about four hundred feet high.” — Burr Osborn, Survivor of Howison Expedition to Oregon, 1846 — Oregon Historical Quarterly – Page 361 by Oregon Historical Society – Oregon – 1913
Nisqually Washington Giant fir, 10 to 12 feet diameter 1925
380 ft Nisqually R. Wa, 1899/1900 measured as a fallen tree near Ashford, Wa. Portion of top missing. Measured with steel tape by USFS ranger Edward Tyson Allen, one of the early technically trained foresters who was stationed in Portland, Oregon. (Forest Giants, Carder pg 2) E.T. Allen. Red Fir in the Northwest, unpublished typescript in library of Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, Portland, Oregon, 1899 or 1900, p. 5. See also letter from E.T. Allen to R.H. McKee, Seattle, Apr. 3, 1924; Richard E. McArdle, Some Notes on Maximum Sizes, Ages, and Yield of Forest Trees, U.S. Department of Agriculture (hereafter USDA) Forest Service Pamphlet, Nov. 22, 1926, p. 7; and E.L. Kolbe, Big Tree Statistics for the North Pacific Region, Data Sheet, June 7, 1933, Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, Portland, Oregon.
“ET Allen” — Edward Tyson Allen, 1905.
Red Fir in the Northwest, ET ALLEN 1899 or 1900 from the Library of the PNW Range and Experiment Station, Portland, Oregon. I received this in the mail last year.
Red Fir in the Northwest. ET Allen 1899 or 1900 pg 4.
Red Fir in the Northwest, 1899 or 1900 pg 5.
He describes the 380 foot tree he measured as the maximum height for red fir. (Douglas fir)
393 ft Mineral, Wa. Blown down 1930, 1,020 yr old. 15.4 ft. diam at breast ht. 6 ft. in diameter at 225 ft. Height measured by USFS Chief Richard McArdle in 1924 with steel tape and Abney level. 168 ft of blown top measured on the ground and recorded in 1905 by Joe Westover, land engineer from Northern Pacific Railway, and measured again by Leo Isaac in 1924-25 at 160 feet. The tree and blown top was measured in 1930 by Jesse Hurd, superintendent of Pacific National Lumber Company’s operations in Mineral. A section of this tree still resides at the Wind River Arboretum, Wa. (Forest Giants, Carder pg. 3)
Mineral Fir, 15.4 feet in diameter
The Mineral Fir attracted much tourism.
Mineral Big fir and local men, 1920′s-30′s
Mineral Fir Mar 27, 1927
Mineral tree in 1929 or 1930, shortly before it fell in a windstorm that winter.
Fallen Mineral fir measured by University of Washington Students 1933.
Dr. Richard Edwin McArdle, Colorado State Univ. 1936.
Served as Chief of the United States Forest Service from July 1952 to March 1962.
Mineral Fir cross section housed at Wind River Arboretum, Washington State in the 1940′s.
350-400 ft “It is, however, the fact that the trees cut in the Oregon region are generally young and of small size, while those cut in Washington, especially by the mills along the South Bend branch of the Northern Pacific Railway are giants, many of them being from 350 to 400 feet in height, and from five to fourteen feet in diameter.” –Telephony: Volume 61 – Page 183. Harry B. McMeal – 1911
350 -400 ft RE: Douglas Firs up to 465 Feet tall. – Trees Forum – Garden Web.
Posted by j50wells none (My Page) on
Wed, Jan 4, 12 at 12:33
Good post Jimmy. My granpa was a logger for fifty years down on the south coast near Brookings. In the 1930′s and 1940′s they did alot of logging in that area. He told me there was alot of Redwood, but not as tall as the one’s in California. He did mention that occassionally they would find a Douglas fir that was well over 300′ tall. I don’t doubt that some of them pushed close to 400′. My grandpa was a very honest man and would tell some great stories about logging. Sometimes he would mix facts up but he would always back up and say , “oops, that’s not the way it was, here’s what really happened.” He was not a liar or the type that would exaggerate, so I believe that he did fall some trees in the 350 to 400 foot range.
400 ft “I have not been able to obtain any reliable information concerning the maximum height of the Douglas Spruce. Lumbermen on Puget Sound habitually speak of trees from three hundred to three hundred and fifty feet tall, but their statements, unsupported by actual measurements, must be accepted cautiously. It is not impossible, however, that this tree may grow to even a greater height than three hundred and fifty feet, as large specimens in some of the sheltered valleys at the base of the Olympic Mountains of northwestern Washington tower far above the surrounding forest, which undoubtedly has an average height of nearly three hundred feet.
Giant fir, 1899. Wa.
In this region and on the western slopes of Mt. Rainier in Washington, trunks from ten to eleven feet in diameter five feet above the surface of the ground and free of branches for two hundred or two hundred and fifty feet are not rare, two or three such trees sometimes standing on an acre of ground. Individuals twelve feet in diameter may occasionally be seen, although they are very rare, and lumbermen and prospectors tell of trees with trunks sixteen feet in diameter.”- The silva of North America: a description of the trees which grow …, Volume 12 By Charles Sprague Sargent – 1898. pg. 88
“Taft fir” Clallam Bay Wa. 14 ft Diameter 10 feet up. 1909
400 ft “…the writer knows personally of whole townships in that county [Chehalis]that will cruise from 6,000,000 to 12,000,000 feet to the quarter section. On one occasion he stood and counted within a radius of about two hundred feet no less than sixty-four trees, not one of which was less than four feet in diameter, and from two hundred to four hundred feet in height, besides as many more smaller ones that might be termed ‘merchantable timber.” -Scientific American – Page 44. July 20, 1895
400 ft “In the typical fir forests, the trees, crowded close together, become very tall, two hundred fifty to four hundred feet high, and sometimes eight to twelve feet in diameter.”The Pacific Monthly by William Bittle Wells – 1903 pg. 345
Giant fir near Bellingham, Wa. date unknown
400 ft “Pine trees growing in Island county, in Puget Sound, are often found to have attained a height of four hundred feet.” – Transactions of the Illinois State Horticultural Society, Volume 12 By Illinois State Horticultural Society pg. 239. 1879
400 ft “The maximum height known is nearly 400 feet; the greatest diameter of the stem is 14 feet. Can be grown very closely, when the stems will attain, according to Drs. Kellogg and Newberry, a height of over 200 feet without a branch.” – Select Extra-Tropical Plants Readily Eligable For Industrial Culture Or Naturalization, With Indications Of Their Native Countries And Some Of Their Uses. - Baron Ferd. Von Mueller, 1884 pg. 268
Giant Douglas fir Mr Ranier National Park 1896
400 ft “From the Cascade range to the Pacific, compromising about one-half of Washington Territory, the surface is densely covered with the finest forest growth in the world. Some of the trees, straight as an arrow, are four hundred feet in height, and fourteen feet in diameter near the ground.” — Resources of the Pacific Slope: A Statistical and Descriptive Summary… By John Ross Browne 1869, pg 574
A 14 foot diameter fir near Lake Crescent, Wa. A Darius Kinsey photo.
400 ft “Here, too, it reaches its greatest dimensions, it being claimed that about the base of Mt. Rainier there are trees [Douglas Fir] over 400 feet in height.” The American Naturalist 1899 by American Society of Naturalists, pg. 391
Logging near Mineral, WA. 1956
400 ft “In its native habitats, the Douglas fir varies considerably in dimensions. In the forests of Washington State it often reaches a height of 250 feet, with a girth of 36 feet. There, trees so high as 300 feet have been seen. These trees are therefore more than twice the height of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square and would even over-shadow the Boston stump. Trees even much loftier than this have been seen, some of them almost reaching the height of the Spire of Salisbury Cathedral which is a little over 400 feet. Specimens have been known to be more than 750 years old.” Trees in Britain, By Lionel John Farnham Brimble, Macmillan, 1946 – pg 98.
400 ft “These forest giants are only surpassed in size by the California red-wood trees, of which we have heard so much. Some of them grow four hundred feet high and fifteen feet through, single trees yielding eighty thousand feet of sawed lumber.” – Our native land By George Titus Ferris, 1882, pg. 130.
400 ft Fir tree 400 feet tall. – Chronicle Telegram, Feb. 14, 1921 pg. 2.
“Current Opinion, Volume 70 “Jan-June1921. Page 851
400 ft 1909, The “Paderewski.” A big tree in Ravenna Park, Seattle, Wa. About 400 feet high, 30 ft in circumference. Photo by F.H. Nowell. — Seattle Postcard.
Ravenna Park
The Roosevelt Tree, 44 ft circumference, 275 feet tall.
400 ft 1908, “Robert E. Lee” tallest tree of Ravenna Park, Seattle, Wa.
Robert E. Lee 1916
The Paderewski, “about 400 feet tall” reads the postcard caption.
400+ft As it lay. Puget Sound, 1876 correspondence from Mr. Sproat to Robert Brown, Book: The countries of the world. pg. 263
400 ft Kerrisdale District, S Vancouver, BC. Felled in 1896. Julius Martin Fromme superintendent of Hastings Mill, says it was the largest Fir ever received by the Mill at almost 400 ft long. Bark up to 16″ thick. 13′ 8″ butt diam. (Forest Giants, Carder. pg 1 -10)
Julius M. Fromme 1912
Hastings Mill
400 ft Allegedly logged by MacMillan Export Company, Copper Canyon, Vancouver Island, BC. date unknown.
400 ft 1893, a “Red fir” in Chehalis County, Wa. 400 feet high, and nearly 54 feet in circumference 6 feet from the ground. – Gettysburg Compiler, Mar. 4,1893. pg. 4.
14 ft diameter fir, Washington
400 ft From “Chehalis county,” [sic] the ‘Lumberman’ was appraised of a fir “53 feet 8 inches in circumference 6 feet from the ground, and over 400 feet high, “. . .and this is doubtless the largest fir in the State.” – More deadly than war!: Pacific Coast logging, 1827-1981, Andrew Mason Prouty – 1985 pg 66. – “If there is any larger tree in the state than the one we have in Chehalis County, a tree that can be vouched for and pointed out, let us hear of its location. Our giant is vouched for by H.F. Coles of this county, who knows exactly where the tree can be found on the southwest quarter of section 10, township 16 north, range 8 west. The tree is a red fir and is 53 feet and 8 inches in circumference at a distance of six feet from the ground and has not a churn butt. Both Mr. Coles and the witness who was with him agree in believing that the tree is over 400 feet high — Oakville Globe.” – Montesano Vidette – Friday, Feb. 10, 1893.
400+ft 1909, a Giant fir tree over 400 feet tall East of Seattle, Wa. Located on western slope of Cascade Mountains, 17.8 ft diam, 18 inches above ground. – The Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, Nov. 29, 1909 pg. 10. & “Coast and Mountain News.” Western Lumberman, Jan. 1910. pg. 16.
Bothel, Wa. 1892
400 ft 16 miles from Tacoma, near Camp Lewis, Wa. According to George Crowl, who was stationed there with the Two Hundred Thirteenth field signal corps, “The camp which quartered 60,000 men, was situated in the heart of the tall fir timberland, beside American Lake. Mount Ranier, although 80 miles away, loomed up as if it were but a short distance from camp”…. “Some of the trees were 400 feet high.”Waterloo Evening Courier, 1928-08-10 pg. 1.
407 ft A cedar tree four hundred and seven feet in height, and seventy feet in circumference at the base, was recently felled near Ocosta, Wash. The first limb sprang sixty feet from the base, and this limb was seven feet in diameter. – The Roanoke times., March 28, 1895, Page 8.
400 ft Special Agent Mosier writes to the general land office from Tacoma, Wash., that a grove of giant redwood trees, like those in the Yosemite National Park, Cal had been discovered in Pierce county, Wash. The secretary of the interior has ordered on investigation of the subject through the agricultural division of the census bureau, and congress may be asked to set aside the land on which the trees are standing as a national park. Mr. Mosier says that the people of Tacoma will probably have a flag pole made of one of the tallest trees to be sent to the world’s fair. Some of the trees are 400 feet high and 13 feet in diameter. – The Princeton Union – Nov. 27, 1890 pg 6
400 ft “…Horseshoe Bay in British Columbia, where it is said a 400-foot Douglas-fir was once cut down.” The Quiet Mountains: A Ten-year Search For The Last Wild Trout Of Mexico’s … By Rex Johnson. 2005 – pg. 18.
412 ft Felled near Tacoma, Wa. and measured 412 feet in length “Which Is the Biggest of Them All?” MacMillan Bloedel News, Vancouver, B.C., Nov. 1970, pg. 6.
415 ft Lynn Valley, N. Vancouver B.C. Felled in 1902 by the “Tremblay Brothers” at Argyle Rd off Mountain Highway (Centre Rd) on the property of Alfred John Nye who measured the felled fir tree at 410 feet long, and 5 feet tall at the stump where the diameter was 14 feet 3 inches, and bark 13.5 in thick. The height of this growing tree was 415 ft. Details are recounted in correspondence between historian Walter Mackay Draycott, and Mr. Alfred John Nye, both of who lived in Lynn valley, B.C. – Walter M. Draycott, “Early Days in Lynn Valley”, 1972 pg. 29. & A.C. Carder, “Forest Giants of the World, Past and Present,” 1995. pg. 8.
Early Days in Lynn Valley. Written by Walter Draycott in the early 1970′s.
Draycott was one of the early settlers to Lynn Valley in 1911. It was he who collected all the old reports and measurements of the Giant trees in that district. I purchased this book in 2009, it was over $ 100! Old rare books are expensive.
Alfred John Nye and a large Douglas fir
Alfred and Olive Nye, wedding 1911.
“Shake Town.” Lynn Valley in 1871
Alfred John Nye, first settler of Lynn Valley. On his property in 1902, a 415 feet tall Douglas fir was felled.
Alfred John Nye was granted 160 acres in Lynn Valley, North Vancouver in 1901, as part of the war land grant for serving in the Boer War when he was in his early twenties. Image From “Early Days in Lynn Valley” pg 5.
Walter Draycott
The Young Walter Draycott. 1901
Lynn Valley Road, 1909.
Lynn Valley Road, 1909
Page 29, of “Early Days in Lynn Valley” mentions the 415 foot and 352 foot tall Douglas fir in Lynn Valley in the early 1900′s.
A 1910′s postcard showing a 13 feet thick Douglas fir from Lynn Valley. Such trees over 350 feet high grew in the valley, although most were from 4 to 6 feet diameter and 150 -250 feet high, according to Walter M. Draycott in his book.
A 12 foot diameter log in Lynn Valley, 1911
450 ft “Douglas Spruce (Ps. taxifolia, Britton.)—Large, strong-timbered trees of wide distribution, but limited to our Pacific region, forming the greater part of the dense forests around Puget Sound, where it attains the enormous diameter of twelve to fifteen feet, with a height of 300 to 450 feet.” – Sierra Club bulletin: Volume 2 – Page 161. Sierra Club – 1899
450+ft “…and the Douglas Spruce, one of the most valuable timber trees on earth, becomes in Oregon and Washington the tallest trees known, 450 to probably 480 feet high!” – How to tell the trees and Forest Endowment of Pacific Slope By John Gill Lemmon, Sara Allen Plummer Lemmon 1902, pg. 13.
450 ft “Cutting down the tall trees, from two hundred fifty to four hundred fifty feet, required considerable care and skill. Sometimes we felt the pathos of it all, when a huge giant, the dignified product of patient centuries of growth, fell crashing, groaning to the earth.”Book: Blazing the way: or, True stories, songs and sketches of Puget Sound and … By Emily Inez Denny. 1899 pg. 439
465 ft 1897 A fir-tree cut down at Loop’s Ranch Forks, Whatcom county, Washington, was 465 feet high, 220 feet to the first limb, and 33 ft 11in circumference at the base and scaled 96,345 feet of lumber. Ring count showed this tree to be 484 years old.– The New York Times, Topics of the Times, March 7, 1897, The Overland Monthly, 1900, pg. 329, The Columbia River Empire by Patrick Donan, Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company, 1899, pg. 68, & Meehans’ Monthly: A Magazine of Horticulture, Botany and Kindred Subjects Published by Thomas Meehan & Sons, 1897.
[I unearthed this report in Feb of 2009, and Ron Judd consulted me on this report in July of 2011, and published his story in the Seattle Times in September 2011.]
From the Whatcom County Museum: The placard on the cross section gives the height of the tree as 465 feet, 220 feet to first branch, and 96,345 feet of lumber.
Gulf Coast breeze.Crawfordville, Fla.June 11, 1897, pg 3
whatcom-fir-the-morning-times-february-28-1897
See Seattle Times Story of the “Nooksack Giant”: http://seattletimes.com/html/restlessnative/2016112972_restless05m.html
430 -476 ft: A study published in 2008 proposed that Douglas fir may have a theoretical height limit of between 131 and 145 meters (430 to 476 feet). See Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7556065.stm
“Vertical trends of different morphological traits have been used to estimate the maximum height to which trees can grow (1, 10). These extrapolations provide estimates that can be compared to observations to infer whether the trends within the data range persist beyond it. Using this approach, we made extrapolations of regressions fitted to the relationships between pit aperture conductance and height to predict the height at which pit aperture conductance would approach zero. This height was 138 m (131 – 145 m; 95% confidence interval) and 109 m (99 – 123 m; 95% confidence interval) in branches and trunks, respectively (Fig. 3B). This calculated range of maximum height for Douglas-fir, predicted on the basis of vertical trends in pit aperture conductance, is consistent with the historic record height range of 100 – 127 m (16, 17).”
Maximum height in a conifer is associated with conflicting requirements for xylem design. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2008:
http://www.pnas.org/content/105/33/12069.full
Another Whatcom fir. Size unknown
480 ft Douglas-fir felled at the southeast slope of the Black Hills, near Bordeaux, Wa c. 1930. It was situated in a south facing valley with high ridges on either side. This tree was measured on the ground with steel tape by loggers at 480 feet in length, and 12 ft in diameter at the butt. – [unconfirmed as of 2012] Personal communication:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/trees/msg1005092422239.html
| My father told me that when he was working for a logging company in the 1930′s they cut down a Douglas Fir on the south side of the Black Hills in Washington State that when they got it on the ground it measured 480 feet. Of course I only have my father’s word so no proven facts. A book on Northwest logging, I forgot the title but remembered this fact, talked about a Douglas Fir of that height being cut down south of Tacoma Washington. unfortunately, almost all the old growth lowland Douglas firs have been logged, so we will never know if they truely got that big.I have included a wikipedia link that states that a study says that Douglas fir has the potential to get 476 feet tall, so there probably were some that big or bigger before they were logged.” |
Giant fir, Gray’s Harbor Wa. 1930
500 ft “Fir is a hard, tough wood, very straight-grained and very close-grained. The trees grow to from 300 to 400 feet in height (sometimes to 500 Feet) and from 200 to 250 feet before branching.” — Telephony: Volume 61 – Page 39. Harry B. McMeal – 1911
Buckers cutting a giant tree into sections. Photo by Kinsey
The giant’s tibia, or shinbone, compared with that of a normal Roman male of the same period.
Photograph by Simona Minozzi, Endocrine Society
Christine Dell’Amore
Published November 9, 2012
It’s no tall tale—the first complete ancient skeleton of a person with gigantism has been discovered near Rome, a new study says.
At 6 feet, 8 inches (202 centimeters) tall, the man would have been a giant in third-century A.D. Rome, where men averaged about 5 and a half feet (167 centimeters) tall. By contrast, today’s tallest man measures 8 feet, 3 inches (251 centimeters).
Finding such skeletons is rare, because gigantism itself is extremely rare, today affecting about three people in a million worldwide. The condition begins in childhood, when a malfunctioning pituitary gland causes abnormally growth.
Two partial skeletons, one from Poland and another from Egypt, have previously been identified as “probable” cases of gigantism, but the Roman specimen is the first clear case from the ancient past, study leader Simona Minozzi, a paleopathologist at Italy’s University of Pisa, said by email.
Piecing Together a Giant
The unusual skeleton was found in 1991 during an excavation at a necropolis in Fidenae (map), a territory indirectly managed by Rome.
At the time, the Archaeological Superintendence of Rome, which led the project, noted that the man’s tomb was abnormally long. It was only during a later anthropological examination, though, that the bones too were found to be unusual. Shortly thereafter, they were sent to Minozzi’s group for further analysis.
To find out if the skeleton had gigantism, the team examined the bones and found evidence of skull damage consistent with a pituitary tumor, which disrupts the pituitary gland, causing it to overproduce human growth hormone.
Other findings—such as disproportionately long limbs and evidence that the bones were still growing even in early adulthood—support the gigantism diagnosis, according to the study, published October 2 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
His early demise—likely between 16 and 20—might also point to gigantism, which is associated with cardiovascular disease and respiratory problems, said Minozzi, who emphasized that the cause of death remains unknown. (Explore an interactive of the human body.)
A Giant of the Stage?
Charlotte Roberts, a bioarchaeologist at the U.K.’s Durham University, said she’s “certainly convinced with the diagnosis” of gigantism. But she’d like to know more.
“You can’t just study the disease, you have to look at the wider impact of how people functioned in society, and whether they were treated any differently,” Roberts said.
Goods buried with a body, for example, can offer hints to the person’s role in life and how they were treated in their community.
The Roman giant, though, was found with no funerary artifacts, study leader Minozzi said. And, she added, his burial was typical of the time, suggesting he was included as part of society.
“We know nothing about the role or presence of giants in the Roman world,” she said—other than the fact that the second century A.D. emperor Maximinus Thrax was described in literature as a “human mountain.”
Minozzi noted, though, that imperial Roman high society “developed a pronounced taste for entertainers with evident physical malformations, such as hunchbacks and dwarfs—so we can assume that even a giant generated enough interest and curiosity.”
Long Illnesses
Whatever the Roman giant’s lot in life, the information to be gleaned after his death might someday further science.
“Normally a doctor will be looking at a patient with a disease over short term span,” Durham University’s Roberts said. “We’ve been able to look at skeletons from archaeological sites that are thousands of years old. You can start to look at trends of how diseases have changed in frequency over time.” (See pictures of ancient Egyptian mummies with heart disease.)
If by studying ancient remains “we can teach the living and help them plan for the future,” she said, “that’s a good thing.”
Historians say this may lead them to re-examine the origins of the region’s people.
Story filed: 10:01 Wednesday 31st July 2002
