Saturday, February 16, 2019

Saturday's postcard: Driving through a redwood


This black-and-white postcard was never mailed but instead had been glued into a scrapbook with black pages many years ago. The printing on the front states:

Drive through
"The Redwood Shrine" tree
At Myers, Redwood Highway.


This tree still exists, and you can still drive through it in Myers Flat, California. FamousRedwoods.com states that the Shrine Drive Thru Tree is also known as the Doust Tree, Redwood Shrine Tree and Shrine of the Redwoods.

Writing on Inspired Imperfection in 2017, Jennifer Bourn states:
"The Shrine Drive-Thru Tree is a chimney tree whose trunk was originally hollowed out by fire more than a century ago. So unlike the other drive-through trees, this one was mostly created by Mother Nature and not cut by man. The natural angled opening was later widened to create a 7.0 foot wide by 7.0 foot tall tunnel through the tree and when Avenue of the Giants was paved, the Shrine Drive-Thru Tree became one of the first roadside attractions along California’s new Redwood Highway."
Bourn also notes that the tree is now held up by steel cables and that her family could not drive through it because large vans, SUVs and pickup trucks are prohibited. For folks who do want to go through, admission is $8 for a vehicle, $4 for a motorcycle and $3 for bicyclists or walkers. You can see some groovy present-day pictures here.

1 comment:

  1. There used to be a photo of my grandparents and their car with a Giant Redwood ... lost to the sands of time apparently :(

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