ENTS,

 

     Today I remodeled the huge Tecumseh pine in MTSF. The tree cubes out to an impressive 689.1. Because I have trouble seeing very far into the crown, I'm a little shaky on the volume above 120 feet. I'll be back at the refinement at least a couple of times before the final word is in.

 

     Tecumseh has gained some altitude. It is now 163.1 feet. Its CBH is 11.7 feet and its CRH is 13.3 feet. Tecumseh is about as impressive as a white pine gets in Massachusetts. With luck, it will join the 50 meter club next year, and if not next year, almost certainly the year after that. Tecumseh's volume is 678 cubes on the formula that I have been describing. So, the match is pretty good.

 

     With the death of Big Bertha, Tecumseh is probably the largest volume pine in Mohawk, although the Hiawatha Tree is probably very close and may surpass Tecumseh a little, but it is hard to model because it has 3 trunks. Tecumseh is the more impressive tree.

 

Bob

Bob,

 

Excellent job.  I look forward to your continued modeling up in MASS.

 

Ed Frank

 

Ed and Larry:

 

      Lee Frelich and Paul Jost are bullish on the possibility of finding a cache of significantly large and tall pines in parts of Wisconsin. Huge pines appear to have been in Wisconsin historically and the pines being managed on the Menominee Reservation lend credibility to this historical perspective. New England reportedly had some whoppers also, but the old reports of 260-ft white pines in New Hampshire I think are wild exaggerations. There supposedly was a 240-ft pine growing on the Dartmouth College campus. I can tell you that the pines growing in the Dartmouth College area now show little promise of getting much above 140. I have measured 5 trees that are in that class. They are all old trees. Three break 150. But 200 feet is out of the question, and 260 pure fantasy.

 

      We'll never know the heights and girths of the pines that once grew in New Hampshire, Wisconsin, or elsewhere. But, what we can do via ENTS is to leave an accurate record for posterity of what is here now. And this is a job that cannot be entrusted to any other group.

 

Bob  Leverett

 

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Bob-
Remind me of the historical accounts of tall masted ships, and how tall the trees were back then...are there any verifiable accounts?
Where I'm going with this, is, with the historic records of NE weather proclivities for 'wind events', would it have been likely to have ever had 260' trees in NE?
-DonB

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I just find it strange that the heights of trees that were cut down
for timber - especially ship masts, where height really matters - were
mismeasured so badly. The difference between 200-feet or less and
claims of 260-feet are quite substantial.

I wonder if there was some sort of incentive to misrepresent the
heights of the trees so badly back then? Prestige is one thing, but
maybe if one colony claimed to have taller trees, they would get more
money and support from England, perhaps? And such claims would be
difficult to refute with the technology and knowledge of the time
until the trees were cut down.

Matthew Hannum

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Matthew,

I think that might be exactly the case.  Those places with the biggest trees
got the most business.  The same thing can be seen in the commercial cave
game in the 1800's - Every cave claimed to have the biggest this or that and
the longest cave.

Here is a list of Tall Ships at the LA Tall Ships event in 2005:
http://www.tallshipsla.com/ships.htm These are typical of the sizes of many
of the historical sailing ships.  The biggest by far is the:  CUAUHTEMOC

"Also known as the "Ambassador and Gentleman of The Seas," the Cuauhtemoc
has logged over 400,000 miles and participated in numerous important
regattas and maritime events around the globe. Operated as a training vessel
by the Mexican Navy, she was built in 1982 in Spain. With a typical crew of
255 sailors and officers, Cuauhtemoc is a sister ship of the Guayas which
appeared at the 2002 Los Angeles Festival of Sail.

Length: 297 feet
Class: A
Type: Barque
Home port: Acapulco, Mexico
Draft: 17'8"
Tonnage: 1,800
Rig Height: 168 feet"

Most of the rig heights are around 100 feet, so the masts would be doable
from almost anywhere.

Ed Frank

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