The Search for Washington's Greatest Timber
As the state prepares for the World's Fair, officials scramble to verify reports of legendary forest giants—only to find that some don't quite measure up to the legends.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Edmond S. Meany, secretary of the state committee, was sent to measure and examine a monster fir reported to be found north of Sedro. The tree was reported to be a solid fir fourteen feet in diameter, but when Mr. Meany went and measured it, the tree shrunk to a diameter of eight feet. However, other large trees are being examined, and it is expected that a tree of twelve feet diameter will be found among such large trees. Mr. Bothell says he will be able to find a tree near Lake McMurray that will equal, if not surpass, anything reported. He will do some accurate measuring soon. A cedar tree reported eight miles from Stanwood, in Snohomish county, on the farm of an old gentleman named Tarte, is seventeen feet in diameter thirty-three feet from the roots, and ten feet in diameter 110 feet from the roots. This giant blew down about ten years ago but is still in a good state of preservation.
“The tree reported to be a solid fir fourteen feet in diameter, but when Mr. Meany went and measured it, the tree shrunk to a diameter of eight feet.”
The late 19th-century 'boosterism' of Washington's natural resources—where size was everything—fueled the rapid clear-cutting that transformed the state's ecology. Today, the few remaining 'old growth' specimens are protected landmarks, a stark shift from the era when they were merely commodities to be measured for exhibition.
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