Redwood Slice

A five-foot diameter piece of redwood was on display at EcoTarium. This tree was 700 years old! It’s tough to see the historical markers in the photo, but starting from the center they are:

• 1310: This redwood starts growing.
• 1325: Aztecs settle Tenochtitlan, the site of present day Mexico City.
• 1415: Chinese explorers visit city of Mombasa (in present day Kenya).
• 1450: Kingdom of Mutapa (in present day Zimbabwe) is founded. They are a major exporter of gold.
• 1455: The Guttenberg Bible is printed.
• 1492: Columbus begins voyages and ends up in the Caribbean.
• 1500: Leonardo Da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa.
• 1534: Spanish settle in Baja California.
• 1620: Pilgrims land at Plymouth.
• 1751: Ben Franklin publishes book about electricity experiments.
• 1769: Spanish settle San Diego.
• 1775-1783: American Revolutionary War.
• 1859: Charles Darwin publishes Origin of Species, arguing for a new theory of evolution.
• 1879: Edison invents the light bulb.
• 1905: Einstein invents the theory of relativity.
• 1939-1945: World War II
• 1950: This tree is cut down in California.

Perhaps even more interesting is the note that when English colonists arrived in New England they found white pines that measured five feet in diameter and 240 feet tall!