Fun stuff. I found a very old hung-up tree over the weekend a few miles out of town, here in Sitka, Alaska.
I was hiking down a forested hill, about 1/3 of a mile from the beach and saw this from a distance:
I thought it might be a hanging broken top, but it just looked really odd. When I got up close I saw that it's an old yellow cedar top hung up in a western hemlock crotch. Below this is a narrow slot canyon about 70-80 feet deep.
I can only guess that the tree naturally fell uphill, or possibly an ancient handlogger dropped the tree and it fell the wrong direction—but that seems a little less likely, since logically an old logger would drop the tree up or down the canyon. It would have had to have been a pretty big screw up to fall 90° to the facecut. Probably will never know that side of the story.
But here's what's a bit crazy:
That ancient hand logger chopped the top of the cedar free from the bottom while standing pretty much strait under it. Granted, there were surely branches holding the top back then, but that would've still taken some big balls.
That said, that old handlogger had some good judgement, since the top is still hanging. I can't guarantee how old it is, but yellow cedar is known to stand dead well over a hundred years, and even still be good saw wood for up to 100. The area this is in was selectively cut of smaller yellow cedar, probably for ship building, since the stumps indicate a love for curves. Large scale boatbuilding slowed down here in the 1850s, to my understanding, before the Russians sold Alaska in 1867. Could be more recent, too, just no telling.
Those axe marks are still pretty clear:
From this and other abandoned face cuts I've seen, it's clear the old handloggers kept their axes nearly razor sharp, but often had little nicks out of the edge. Must've been some burly dudes.
Happy working in the woods, everyone. What you leave might just be there for a heck of a long time.
I was hiking down a forested hill, about 1/3 of a mile from the beach and saw this from a distance:
I thought it might be a hanging broken top, but it just looked really odd. When I got up close I saw that it's an old yellow cedar top hung up in a western hemlock crotch. Below this is a narrow slot canyon about 70-80 feet deep.
I can only guess that the tree naturally fell uphill, or possibly an ancient handlogger dropped the tree and it fell the wrong direction—but that seems a little less likely, since logically an old logger would drop the tree up or down the canyon. It would have had to have been a pretty big screw up to fall 90° to the facecut. Probably will never know that side of the story.
But here's what's a bit crazy:
That ancient hand logger chopped the top of the cedar free from the bottom while standing pretty much strait under it. Granted, there were surely branches holding the top back then, but that would've still taken some big balls.
That said, that old handlogger had some good judgement, since the top is still hanging. I can't guarantee how old it is, but yellow cedar is known to stand dead well over a hundred years, and even still be good saw wood for up to 100. The area this is in was selectively cut of smaller yellow cedar, probably for ship building, since the stumps indicate a love for curves. Large scale boatbuilding slowed down here in the 1850s, to my understanding, before the Russians sold Alaska in 1867. Could be more recent, too, just no telling.
Those axe marks are still pretty clear:
From this and other abandoned face cuts I've seen, it's clear the old handloggers kept their axes nearly razor sharp, but often had little nicks out of the edge. Must've been some burly dudes.
Happy working in the woods, everyone. What you leave might just be there for a heck of a long time.
