Interesting news - old news...

Thanks for the link Moshe - the age is surely impressive and brings to mind how the world was then and what changes have taken place while that log lay buried for so long, but, to my eye, it's not very attractive.

A couple summers ago, a Douglas Fir died in the park across the street from our house and needed to be taken down. The ring count was something on the order of 200 years, IIRC. It was amazing to me, that a little seedling was taking hold where I was standing as Lewis and Clark were making their way along the Columbia River.

Also amazing it wasn't logged.

Hi Moshe

The tree wasn't that old, but it's amazing that it had not rotted away in all this time. I have a couple of small chunks of Kauri wood that my sister brought back from New Zealand, It is carbon dated to be between 30.000 and

50.000 years old. People in New Zealand turn and use the wood for souvenirs etc., I haven't got the gumption yet to cut them into just another bottle stopper etc. For what I know, the wood does not turn any better than the new wood, probably the same with that white pine, there is better turning wood out there, but not much with a history like that, must be nice to be able to turn real old Olive wood, and it would turn much better I bet. Tanks for the link Moshe.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

Kinda... the town was founded when the tree was about 75 years old and I'm pretty sure the park was established c.1900 (tree would have been about 100). At that age, the tree wouldn't have been particularly desirable considering the quantity of multi-centuries old trees in the surrounding area. By the time this tree became desirably large, the city had grown up around it and the park was entrenched so no one would have considered removing it for lumber.