One of the more interesting displays in the museum is this slice of a 519 year old Ponderosa Pine which was struck by lightning in 1948. Given its great size, much taller than any other surrounding trees at the time, one wonders how many times it may have been struck in its lifetime. By 1948 it had attained a height of 198 feet. The 1948 lightning strike apparently killed the tree and in 1949 the local landmark was cut down. Its stump measured 83 inches in diameter and the tree was estimated to have contained 18,720 board feet of lumber.
We assume it to have been 519 years of age in 1948, meaning that it would have sprouted in 1429, 63 years before Christopher Columbus made his epic voyage. The tree would have stood witness to the entire European colonization and settling of the Americas. A photo of the tree while it still stood is mounted on the display, with a man standing beside it, giving a sense of its immense size.
The museum isn't open year round, so one can't view this specimen in the winter months. Open times are Tuesday through Saturday - 11 AM to 5 PM, April 1 to October 31.
