Redwood Log of History

Weott, California

We appreciate a good Slab of History. It's a traditional tourist fixture in California redwood forests. Attractions take a fallen giant tree, excise a cross-section, and label the growth rings with historical milestones. Nature added one ring each year, so anyone with patience to count can determine the tree's age and the year of each ring.

Tourists grasp tree time better when compared to human time.

In recent decades, some Slabs were stripped of Eurocentric text and replaced with more inclusive, right-side-of-H milestones. These days it's hard to find a slab where Columbus still discovers America.

The Redwood Log of History at the Humboldt Redwoods State Park visitors center falls between extremes of history angst (and it's more of a log than a slab). Most history slabs are a half century or more old; this one toppled relatively recently, near Bear Creek on December 26, 2006. A label on the log notes that the date tags are mounted on the third cut of the log, which was about 70 feet off the ground.

The center dates from 912 A.D. The earliest label is "1000 - Vikings discover North America." That helps us date the log's labeling to a period after the rise of Columbus shaming and Viking claims -- but before the curtain dropped on discovering a place already inhabited by people.

The other labels are an uneven chronicle of achievements, but apparently a triumph of academic committee resolution: Ming dynasty begins; Printing Press Invented (civilization no longer had to write everything on logs); Oxford University founded and University of Paris founded; Humboldt Bay discovered (huh?). The final milestone is in 1928 -- "California State Park system established."

Humboldt Redwoods State Park visitors center displays another impressive history log -- Charles Kellogg's Travel Log. It's a 1917 vehicle carved from a single redwood tree.