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Stump of Spruce Giant Still Popular

September 11, 2008

Along the Oregon coast stood America’s largest Sitka spruce, a tourist stop for years among people who like to look at big trees. It was 206 feet tall and it even had its own name: the Klootchy Creek Giant. But there were lots of other, different kinds of trees, that were bigger. And when a freak windstorm blew into Oregon in 2007, the 750-year-old Sitka was toppled.

But this was one tree that was not willing to give up its celebrity just because it was dead.

The storm did not knock the Klootchy Creek Giant down; it snapped the tree in half. What remains is a ragged-looking 100-foot-tall stump, with the top 100 feet collapsed in a huge pile next to it, set in a spacious forest clearing. As local TV station KATU reports, it’s still a tourist attraction and “a sight to behold.” The ruined tree in fact makes a far more dramatic photo-op than the complete tree ever did.

There are stumps that are bigger than the Klootchy Creek Giant Stump, but probably none that are as impressive and that are already set up for visitors. But you should see it sooner rather than later. Ruins only get more ruined with time, and what was fascinating at first eventually becomes something, visually, that’s not all that exciting.

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