Drive-Through Redwoods Are Monuments to Violent Deforestation
Saying goodbye to the age of tunneled trees
This weekend, amidst a torrent of rain, one of California’s most iconic sequoia trees fell and shattered. Pioneer Cabin Tree was likely over a thousand years old. It had endured the last hundred as a hollow living tree, through which tourists could walk and once even drive. My first thought was, “Oh no.” I was there just a couple years ago. My second thought was, “Oh wait.”
Because, I remembered after furiously scrolling through my Shrine Drive Thru Tree in Myers Flat, CA. Or the Tour-Thru Tree in Klamath, CA. Or the . Or the made famous in black-and-white photos of Yosemite National Park, which toppled under a heavy load of snow in 1969. These drive-through were all tunneled in the late 19th or early 20th centuries.
