I made another sale at Constant Content today. It was rather unexpected as the piece was written for Americans taking a trip to the Sequoia National Park in California and finding the largest tree in the world. The article had been sitting on the site for nearly four months. Anyway, I thought I’d give you the story of how I came to write it.
Hubby and I took a short break to Guernsey. We each bought one of their fabulously cheap bus passes and took a ride to Saumarez Park, planning to circuit the park itself and then take a walk on footpaths to the sea, where we could pick up another bus back to our hotel.
One of the most memorable things about this park was the stump of a large felled tree and some educational notices explaining about its rings and how to tell its age. It was certainly a good specimen for this – about four feet across with well-defined rings. Another sign just happened to mention that the largest tree in the world is The General Sherman Tree.
A few days later we took the Condor back across the English Channel to Weymouth, pick up our car and head north for home. Every so often I found myself wondering about this General Sherman Tree. Where is it? What kind of tree is it? How big is it? How old is it? Why does it have that name - the name of a tank from the Second World War? Who was General Sherman?
When I was finally back in my office, sitting in front of my VDU and switching on my computer, at last I could find out the answers. So I did.
The tree is a Giant Sequoia, which is not the tallest ever tree, but is the largest by volume. It’s now believed to be around 2,000 years old. It was named after one of the famous Generals of the American Civil War, and shares that honour with the American-built M4 Sherman tank used by British forces in the Second World War.
Hubby and I took a short break to Guernsey. We each bought one of their fabulously cheap bus passes and took a ride to Saumarez Park, planning to circuit the park itself and then take a walk on footpaths to the sea, where we could pick up another bus back to our hotel.
One of the most memorable things about this park was the stump of a large felled tree and some educational notices explaining about its rings and how to tell its age. It was certainly a good specimen for this – about four feet across with well-defined rings. Another sign just happened to mention that the largest tree in the world is The General Sherman Tree.
A few days later we took the Condor back across the English Channel to Weymouth, pick up our car and head north for home. Every so often I found myself wondering about this General Sherman Tree. Where is it? What kind of tree is it? How big is it? How old is it? Why does it have that name - the name of a tank from the Second World War? Who was General Sherman?
When I was finally back in my office, sitting in front of my VDU and switching on my computer, at last I could find out the answers. So I did.
The tree is a Giant Sequoia, which is not the tallest ever tree, but is the largest by volume. It’s now believed to be around 2,000 years old. It was named after one of the famous Generals of the American Civil War, and shares that honour with the American-built M4 Sherman tank used by British forces in the Second World War.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this round trip from Dorset to Guernsey, to California, to the battle zones of Europe and back to Dorset. My article is still for sale as the customer only purchased one time rights, so you can read more about the General Sherman Tree and the Sequoia National Park by clicking on Read more against the title here.
Original Articles. Constant-Content.
5 comments:
I had the chance to see one of the sequoia trees during a trip to yosemite park and yes, I can imagine how big the tree you're talking about. They're just so majestic aren't they?
I can imagine it by comparing the people beside it. It would be awesome to see it personally, but I guess I will just have to be contented reading your article and viewing pictures.
Thanks for sharing.
I have always loved trees as a writing element, and wow, you have a whopper there. Thanks for the inspiration.
Justin
I would love to see a tree like that. Imagine if that tree could talk all the things it has seen!
Thank you for your comments, folks. They have inspired with a writing idea. I'm off to research tree hugguing.
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