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1,700 Year Old Cypress Logs Found in the River-- New Yankee
Workshop films in Micanopy, FL March 15, 1998
Goodwin Heart Pine Company, specialists in recovering original
growth logs from Southern rivers has pulled a mammoth size
cypress tree from a private creek in west Florida. The tree,
approximately 1,700 years old and over 100 feet tall when
it was cut down by ax a hundred years ago, is 53” in
diameter and three times larger than most cypress logs Goodwin
recovers. Goodwin pulled a 34-foot section from the river,
likely the bottom portion of the tree.
Because the tree was submerged in cool water, the milled
lumber will be in pristine condition. The sections will provide
enough wood to side or panel an entire house and most likely
will be used for historic restoration and preservation projects.
Cypress trees are among the most slowly growing and have
been clear-cut, like its sister tree the redwood, to near
extinction. IT is one of few remaining prehistoric species.
A favorite wood of Frank Lloyd Wright’s, cypress was
a difficult wood to cut by hand due to is size and swampy
growing conditions. A century ago loggers would chop a ring
around the tree or “girdle” the tree in winter
or early spring so that moisture would be pulled out as the
tree put on leaves. Months later in the wet season when it
was easier to get a boat into the swamps, the lumber jacks
would return to harvest the tree. This particular tree probably
was still too heavy and sank even after being girdled.
“In the 22 years I have been recovering and milling
antique logs, this tree is certainly among the largest,”
said George Goodwin, owner and operator of Goodwin Heart Pine.
“It is extremely rare to find a log of this size either
recovered from a river or even growing near a river. Unfortunately,
Southern original growth forests of heart pine and cypress
were clear-but to extinction a hundred years ago and today
even young cypress trees are being cut without the benefit
of replanting.”
Since Goodwin began its mill in 1979, it has been the original
source of true pre-settlement quality Heart Pine and Heart
Cypress. The company rescues logs by hand from southern river
bottoms where they have lain for more than a century beneath
the cool murky waters. Like the treasured timber, a visit
to the mill in rural north Florida is a step back in time.
George Goodwin tracked down the most knowledgeable old-timers
to teach him the lost art of rendering the quality of timber
from these old logs that was last available to your great-grandparents.
Goodwin takes pride in being different from other lumber mills.
The company’s passion for the wood, its craft and its
customers demands it!
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