--- — * MILL CITY ENTERPRISE, JANUARY 1’0. 1949 Douglas fir, owns the growing and staying power to lift wealth for us from the poorest land. It is a tree to cherish. Baby Tree. Down in the youngest second growth at the foot of the mountain irsfrrvr* and near the county road stod the I Foresters reckoner th >ad tow­ THREE TREES five year old Douglas fir. The Christ­ Among the thousands of trees on ered three hundred feet and more in mas tre thieves had passed it by be­ the mountain slope were three, each 1 its prime. Early settlers had noted cause it was little and the gaps of with an individual story. The big­ the big fir at a turn in an Indian growth were too long and bare be­ gest and highest of the three was a i trail, as far back as 1848. Then it tween branches. But other saplings dead Douglas fir, a hollow, standing was still alive, except for a snag top. had been stolen around it. Cut Around 1898, the great Douglas snag. Its trunk was ten feet through. branches and trees that had been cut fir had lost its last sprig of green. and then discarded lay among the The giant trunk stood on, dead tim­ small, higt stumps. Above the de- ber, the top crumbling away year by bris the baby tree stood alone. year. Now in 1949 it was broken Look ahead in imagination to some Most Treaaured Documents down to. a mere 50 feet in height. At summer day, after a week of heat its bottof a fire scar had eaten into and dry east wind. A car speeds up NEXT WEEK an opening that a man could enter the road in a cloud of dust, bound without stooping and which provided for a fishing stream. A live cigaret I housing for bears and littler timber | is flipped from the window of the Benjamin Franklin I beasts. I x Six hundred and more years ago, the Christmas tree thieves Writes his Epitaph. — into ' the forestéis said, the big tree had mats of needle like leaves that are ' been but a tiny seed, a grain with a now brown, tinder-dry in the parch­ glider tail, in flight from a ripe Doug ing weather. Soon smoke In our display window boils up las fir cone that a dry east wind of in the drifting dust. late fall had opened. Where a light­ The fire creeps on, there is a lift ning fire had made a clearing, the of the licking flames into a torch for I seed found life in soil exposed to a minute, and then the little lone sunlight. Bracken fern, fireweed and tree is left standing, smoking, every ' -alai had nuised this seedling with needle leaf burned into a black shred. A Seif Supporting, Tax Paying i others on the burned laond. In time There it is, when the tank truck rolls Private Enterprise a family of youngg Douglas firs had up and the forestry men drown out crowded out all lesser plant life from the blaze. “No damage to report. w 1 the burn and fought each other in Another lesson, bit no poetry this thrustingg up learly spears of growth t me. to the sun. es. Six centuries of tiee life come to Here the tough and strong tree ruin, Six centuries aggo trees were had stood and thus held its own felled in Norway and staves from against the worst the winds could them were used to build churches, give it, and so, it had giown into That wood lives on in beauty and the shape of a landmark for the , service. There is poetry in the fact. pioneers of the 1840’s. They named There is a gieat lesson. the spot Tough Tree Point. Tough Tree Point. The Douglas fir clung to the rocks Half way down the mountain a drank throng its roots, breathed boulder of granitt jutted so as to through its leaves, and by the magic be visible for many miles. On the of its natural chemistry woiking shoulder’s point another tree grew with air, sunlight and water, lived out of loose rocks. It was probably on. There is poetry in this fact, too. more than 200 years old, yet it was And a lesson that our main tree, the n more than 20 inches through the trunk, while its wind-beaten crown was bue 60 feet aloft. The roots of the tree on the point were numerous and they were pow­ Only ten members of the Gates erful and large in their spread. The Women's Club bi aved the cold and spread was exposed. There the roots ice to attend the regular meeting swelled in bulges, as with mighty Thursday afternoon at the school­ muscles, reaching on to grip rocks house. befor thrusting down to water sourc- A 1 o’clock dessert luncheon was served by the hostesses, Mrs. Glen Henness and Mrs. Clarence Rush. Following the luncheon the bus­ iness session was held with Mrs. El­ mer Stewart presiding. The names of the “seciet pals” were revealed but it was decided to postpone tse I drawing of name for the coming I IMTIMNATIONAL HAftVIBVtft year until the social meeting Jan. 27 , to be held at the home of Mrs. T. R Burton. Mrs. Kenneth Miller representing the Marion County home extension I unit spoke on the subject “how to grow old gracefully.” The next reg­ ular meeting will be held Feb. 10 with Mrs. Joe Joaquin and Mrs. Wil liam Athey as hostesses. The topic j will be The Selection of China, with ■ a demonstrator from the extension I unit present. Those attending the meeting were I f*