Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1891-08-07

An Immense Tree of California to be Made
into Cars for the Benefit of the Worlds

An Immense Tree of California to be Made
into Cars for the Benefit of the Worlds
Fair.
The Tularc people are going to exhibit
one of the results of the California climate
in an altogether original way, says the San
Francisco Examiner.
There is Il tree in that county which is a
fair specimen of what the redwood can be
if it grows enough, 1t stands in a gorge
deep enough 10 be awful, aud its topmost
boughs, where the cones are thickest, are
Oh a level with the highest rocks on the
sides of the ravine.
1t is not cut yet, so the measurements 30
far taken may be Mt fault bit one way or
the other, but they are near enough to the
truth to make safe betting.
The tree is $40 feet high, ninety.six
feet from the butt to the first branch, and
twenty-six feet through at the very base.
A log of clean, smooth wood that will
measure ninety feet in length and average
twenty feet in diameter can easily be cut
out of it,
That is what the Tulare people promise
to do, and having the log they will utilize
it to the benefit of the world s fair and the
glory of Tulare.
The tree grows well up toward the head
waters of the kaweah river, and the great
log will have to be carried or moved in
some way to the railroad at Visalia dis
lance of nearly sixty miles.
1t is stupendous undertaking, but the
people of that country do not stop a.
trihes. In all likelihood the trunk will be
cut in sections Iengthwise, and then the
Nn tukpn
over the log road. Ok teams will do the
hauling probably score of span to the
section.
In many places a road will have to be
cut through and built up. Crooks and
turns and precipitous slants will have to
be avoided, and often when the road IS
uphill it will require the combined
strength of all the oxen to haul one section
up the steep.
When finally the giant of the Tulare
woods is where it can be moved on lllroad
cars, it will have cost hundreds and hun
dreds of dollars, and six months will have
been passed from the time the men with
axes started to fell il.
Then the more important work will
commence.
The log will be made whole by the put
ting together of the sections, Expert
woodsmen will cut it across in the puddle,
making two lengths, each forty.fye feet
long. Each of these lengths will then be
hewu into the shape of ordinary railway
passenger coaches.
The rough bark of the tree will be the
roof of the car and on the sides End ends
tie natural wood will be left unpublished,
The inside will be followed out, win
dows and doors put in, and the interior
finished after the fashion of Pullman cars.
One will be a buffet and dining car, with
apartments for bath, ba,bar shop, and
kitchen The other will be a sleeper, with
with an observation-room.
Platforms will be put at the end and ordi'
nary trucks underneath and, to prevent
the transformed tree from falling TO
pieces under any circumstances, heavy
bands Of iron will be put around the body
of the car.
The tree would have been left with the
bark all on but for the fact that the cars
could not be more than the regulation
size and get over bridges and through
tunnels safely. They will be about eleven
feet wide and ten feet high.