B A C K   T H E N

Big Timber



This piece of lumber, cut from a single tree, is so large that even this dramatic photograph cannot do it justice. It contains 518,880 cubic inches of wood, and even if we decided to cut this giant down into the ubiquitous 2x4, which has become the primary structural element of most wooden houses today, then it could supply the framing for the walls, floors and roof of a substantial two story building.

The grain in the center of the beam shows that this was the tree’s middle as well. Faintly visible on the side nearest to the viewer, running vertically, are the parallel marks which show that the cutting was down with a bandsaw. Running along the top, halfway down, is a slight irregularity caused by the straight cut running out of the log for a bit, revealing the tree’s original bark covered surface. Back in the sawmill where this monster was cut, the sawyer made a nearly perfect judgement about how the log should be oriented and where the cuts should be made to allow the largest possible timber to be extracted from the tree. A number of smaller but still massive beams came from the sides, so the yield was much greater than this single chunk would imply.

People differ and so do nations, through no preordained plan of logic or fairness. In the United States it is all too easy to forget that our country fed on an incredible gift of natural resources. In Europe nearly all of the trees had been cut when the saw blades of the nineteenth century started to log the climax growth of the United States. From coast to coast the ranges held wood, minerals, fertile soil and abundant water, each in a profusion unmatched elsewhere and we tend not to admit that this wealth always stood be-hind America’s achievements.

Photo Courtesy of Newport News Maritime Museum, Newport News, Va. Text Courtesy of Yale University Press.