Virgin redwood, 864 years old (LOC)

Vachon, John,, 1914-1975,, photographer.

Virgin redwood, 864 years old

1942

1 transparency : color.

Notes:
 Title from FSA or OWI agency caption.
Transfer from U.S. Office of War Information, 1944.

Subjects:
 World War, 1939-1945
Redwoods

Format: Transparencies--Color

Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.

Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Part Of: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Collection 12002-59 (DLC) 93845501

General information about the FSA/OWI Color Photographs is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.fsac

Higher resolution image is available (Persistent URL): hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsac.1a35447

Call Number: LC-USW36-954

Comments and faves

  1. ★

    getthebubbles, Geekette70, shuutastic, Jiak, and 98 other people added this photo to their favorites.

  2. getthebubbles (65 months ago | reply)

    wow.

  3. leadegroot (65 months ago | reply)

    and they cut it down :(

  4. origamidon (65 months ago | reply)

    :: . . . for Science (we're good at counting rings), ya know.

  5. aamartin (65 months ago | reply)

    It could have just fallen on it's own.

  6. jakevsrobots (65 months ago | reply)

    somewhere in here i was born ... and there i died

  7. Chris Boese (65 months ago | reply)

    You said it, Grace Kelly!

  8. Chris Boese (65 months ago | reply)

    Whoops, my bad, Kim Novak! Wrong movie!

  9. jasongnc (65 months ago | reply)

    I think I have seen that recently irl, but don't remember where.....

  10. Olaf (65 months ago | reply)

    The photographer's own life would have been a mere blink in time to the subject.

  11. The Queen of No (65 months ago | reply)

    just amazing

  12. photoFlounder (65 months ago | reply)

    There is one similar to this at the main AAA (actually ACSC) in Los Angeles.

  13. 34spartan (65 months ago | reply)

    "Timekeeper"

  14. timberline131 (64 months ago | reply)

    Looks similar to one cross-section in Portland, Oregon's former Forestry Building in the '50s.

  15. John (Tex) O'Connor (64 months ago | reply)

    .

  16. NWilson (64 months ago | reply)

    Hard to believe, but redwoods bigger and older than this are still being cut down in Northern California by Pacific Lumber Company. In 1974 I personally counted the growth rings on the stump of a 54 ft. circumference giant redwood cut down in Mendocino County by Georgia-Pacific, a corporation which has since left the county after logging off all the available redwoods from its lands. There were over 1540 countable rings on the big stump I counted, plus more years of growth in the center where the wood had rotted away over the centuries. I had to use a magnifying glass to clearly see and count some of the rings. Only a tiny percentage of the original 2,000,000 acres of Coast Redwood forest remains uncut. Forest protection activists have been trying to put the brakes on corporate liquidation logging for more than 30 years. Most people assume the remaining virgin redwoods have been saved, and are amazed that some people still think it's okay to cut them down for fancy decks and wall paneling. Redwood is not used for structural lumber. It's too expensive for that, because it's so rare. There's only one place in the world where the Sequioia sempervirens grows naturally, and I'm priveleged to live there. This photo has got me started, and I'm going to find that 1974 slide documenting the 1540 year old redwood and post it in my Flickr stream soon.

  17. I likE plants! (63 months ago | reply)

    One word.....

    'Amazing'!

  18. Happy Tinfoil Cat (63 months ago | reply)

    Pioneers lived inside this tree which was burned out by a lightning strike.
    DSC08668

    Here, my family stands at the base of a large one
    smDSC03778

    Most people will never get a chance to see these. Clear cutting these 300 foot giants is a crime against humanity IMHO.

  19. heniheni91 (47 months ago | reply)

    Virgin

  20. ammaraimmar (46 months ago | reply)

    Dara"virgin"

  21. Tashunka Witko (alias CP) (35 months ago | reply)

    ...solo la stupidità dell'uomo poteva abbatterlo!!

  22. trvln_thru (31 months ago | reply)

    In the early 1980s I told my class of 4th graders about a giant redwood I had seen in California that was over 2000 years old. I explained that it had started to grow before Jesus was born and the kids buzzed with comments and questions. Every once in a while someone would ask me something about the tree. Towards the end of the year, I told them some fantastic tale and one of the boys said, "yeah, yeah, we know, just like that tree in California that's older than God!"

  23. mdvadenoforegon2 (29 months ago | reply)

    The redwoods will grow nicely in Oregon too, although not to 300 feet inland near Portland. But certainly 200 to 300 feet in our coast range if they would plant them. Since they log big swaths of our coastal forests every half decade or so, maybe they should replant some areas with coast redwood, I've already seen a few sporadic spots along Hy. 26 where they planted a few giant sequoia. But coast redwood should be better.
    ********************
    MDV Coast Redwoods

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