C1
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANuARY 25, 2019
CONTACT US
FOLLOW US
Erick Bengel | Features Editor
ebengel@dailyastorian.com
facebook.com/
DailyAstorian
Photos by Ron Baldwin/For The Daily Astorian
Where are
the monkeys?
By RON BALDWIN
For The Daily Astorian
W
hen I was a boy, there was a monkey puzzle tree in a
yard that we passed when my father drove my mother
and I from our farm near Mayger to Longview, Washing-
ton, to see my grandmother. The conversation went something like this:
“Wow Dad, look at that crazy tree,
what kinda tree is that?”
“That’s a monkey tree, son.”
“But where are the monkeys?”
“Look really hard.”
“Dad I’m really looking hard, and I
don’t see any monkeys.”
“You’ll just have to look harder
next time.” he said as the tree faded in
the distance.
The monkey puzzle tree, Araucaria
araucana, is an evergreen conifer
native to central and southern
Chile and western Argentina.
It’s the National Tree of Chile
and a symbol of pride in the
population. The tree can grow
to 8 feet in diameter at its base
and 170 feet in height in its nat-
ural state, but in its home range,
it is threatened by logging and
poor forest management. Increasingly,
the greatest threat to the species is vol-
canic activity that triggers catastrophic
fires in the protected stands of the Cor-
poración Nacional Forestal (Chile
National Forest Corp.). Many of the
biggest of these trees are 1000-plus
years old.
Named for a comment by a Victo-
rian matron benefactor of the British
Royal Botanic Garden: “To climb that,
would puzzle a monkey,” the stately
tree, with its strangely whorled, pointy
leaves and distinctive bark is widely
distributed across Northwest neigh-
borhoods. It has become a Northwest
nursery staple.
So, how did these trees become so
ever-present in Northwest yards?
The 1890s saw a “rash” of “World’s
Fairs,” not the least of those being in
Chicago and St. Louis. This, quite
understandably, created some civic
jealousy among emerging American
cities of the time, and Portland was
certainly one of those. The economic
depressions of the 1870s and
1880s were over, the railroads
came to town, the mills were
hiring, and Portland’s ascen-
dant merchant class was ready
to showoff its shiny new city.
A partnership was formed,
and shares were sold in what
was to become the “Lewis
and Clark Centennial and American
Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair.”
That being a real mouthful, journalists
of the time began to refer to it as the
“Lewis and Clark Exposition.” Thank-
fully, that stuck.
According to newspaper accounts
of the time, the Exposition Commis-
sion leased most of what is now north-
west Portland, and broke ground in
1901. The transformation of the site
was massive. An artificial lake and
See Trees, Page C2
NAMED FOR A COMMENT BY A
VICTORIAN MATRON BENEFACTOR OF THE
BRITISH ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN: ‘TO
CLIMB THAT, WOULD PUZZLE A MONKEY,’
THE STATELY TREE, WITH ITS STRANGELY
WHORLED, POINTY LEAVES AND
DISTINCTIVE BARK IS WIDELY
DISTRIBUTED ACROSS NORTHWEST
NEIGHBORHOODS. IT HAS BECOME A
NORTHWEST NURSERY STAPLE.