of california's giant redwood trees is a big job even before the trees are felled a railroad has to be built to take the trees to the mills to be cut into lumber surveyors lay out the lines that are funded by the railroad the ties on the rails are laid even before the trees are failed the x means that this tree would itself be used in moving other trees as soon as they are brought down and cut into logs for most people a job like this would seem too dangerous but then logging is a hard and dangerous work and these men take pride in their strength and courage they are the man who fell the trees and get the logs out of the wood so that we may have lumber for houses for furniture for the thousand uses of wood and all in his day's work over goes the top of this tree the job of logging is well underway donkey engines are brought up to lift the big logs haul them around and place them on railroad cars having cables and huge permits are needed to lift logs weighing up to fifty tons the actual felling of a tree begins with the making of a scaffold for the axemen to stand on as they work then they begin their cutting cutting their way into trees that may be as old as our civilization for the redwood trees of california are probably the o est of living things the red words that grow along the coast lived to be two thousand years old they are young at three hundred fifty years their mature a thousand years and they reach old age  one thousand five hundred years all of the world's history since christ was born could have occurred during the life or perhaps one of these redwoods but just as the tree itself is able to live through centuries to live even through forest fires so and the saws bring it down the lumber will last for many many years that is why it is very valuable as lumber insects and fun guide and i've heard it and it actually resists fire songs keep working in the x men bring the trade down figuring the fault carefully so as not to hit other trees and splinter the wood when the cutting is managed the men get away fast on the base of the train as it falls or sometimes trees twist or fall in a way not expected but here which will they fall just as the x men figured and sometimes the x men figure very closely closer than one would imagine so down they come some of the world's oldest biggest and tallest trees graze that grow over three hundred fifty feet high trails that may be over twenty feet thick at the base trees that are so big that more than twenty houses can be made from just one tree but don't think these giants are being completely destroyed many of the oldest in the biggest of the redwoods are being saved parks with thousands of acres of redwoods are set aside for our enjoyment but now the logs are cut to the lengths wanted by the males and the carpenters and started on their way to becoming boards useful to mankind but the journey is not quick simple or easy logs must be snaked out by big tractors and loaded on to heavy trucks or dragged by the tractors out to the edge of the clearing where they can be picked up and carried over head toward the railroad the logs look small as they swing easily through the air notice the big tongs like ice tongs that are used in lifting and moving the logs and the booms that swing the logs on to the flat cars the arrival of the logs at the railroad the second part of the longer journey to the mill is begun trays that were living and growing a few days before are now on their way to be sawn into lumber use coast red words are used for lumber but there is another species of redwood which is not it is the red one of the sierra nevada mountains the scientific name for both this sequoia the name of a famous cherokee indian let's hear or read what is even bigger than the coast redwood it grows to be as much as forty feet thick at the base and it lives longer it may live to be four thousand in the years old red words are today native only to california and a small section of oregon but thousands of years ago they were to be found throughout europe then asia they grew in countries that are now cold but were at one time  places like alaska iceland and greenland their history goes back millions of years to the time of the dinosaurs but here at the sawmill the redwoods are just big logs that have to be unloaded into the mill pond and the straight arm that is used in football is found here to be simple and efficient trainload after trainload comes t mail to meet the huge demand for redwood in this country and abroad the demand for a word that will not rot but termites will not eat that fire cannot easily they go one huge log after another h one meeting the demand for a wood where that special advantage is here other tempers that won't rot in wet mines or the railroad ties that won't catch fire when burning cinders fall on them and here is a mill where the logs are brought from the forest and stored in a mill pond where they can be easily move as fast as the mill can cut them they are floated over to the conveyor belts and brought into the mill the bark is removed and ground up for use as an insulating material against  begin cutting off enormous boards the whole log is moved back the bandsaw as each board is cut the log moves back and then comes forward for the cutting of the next bo after this the boards with bad parts in the the trimmer man and the angels roost as it is called can raise and lower his saws to cut out the bad sections and save the rest then the boards are checked and graded for quantity from here on with the drying  when the word become seasoned it will be shipped all over the world taken from males like this and transported to wherever redwood is needed but when we look at stacks of redwood lumber we may well be reminded of its ancient history for this is lumber from a species of tree that has survived for millions of years trees that can withstand the insects and diseases that kill off other species trees that can withstand fire trees the tower over three hundred fifty feet trees that live to be two and four thousand years old the tallest biggest oldest trees in the world and some of the number from such trees gives us a word that has the same enduring qualities is also the word that has a beauty which we enjoy in our homes for its richness and warmth of or just as the russians discovered at the time when their own empire extended into california and they built the stockade and blockhouse at fort rucker what has not only beauty and enduring but a strength born out of the the world's biggest and oldest of living things the coast and nevada redwoods continue to live in our use of them just as they continue to live the growth in our forests today