By Louis Silcox as seen in the Wilmot-Tavistock Gazette
When settlers from Europe first moved into the Wilmot area they found some enormous trees. One that wasn’t yet so impressive was a bur oak growing at the north end of the township. It was on the Nith River flats, so water was not often scarce.
This oak became huge by the time it was 250 years old. It was so big, Earthscape Playgrounds of Wallenstein asked to buy it for a project, but its current owners, Terry and Christa Gerber, preferred to keep their magnificent tree. The diameter was already 132 centimetres (52 inches)!
This tree had survived many years of winter blasts, droughts, spring floods, thunderstorms and the year without summer (caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora). But one windy day a few weeks after the Gerbers said they’d prefer to keep it as is, down it came on its own. The roots didn’t anchor it in the soil well enough; perhaps the damp soil had a downside.
The offer with Earthscape was refreshed and, in time, they came to truck it away. It was cut into three pieces, each about eight metres (25 feet) long and weighing 6,800 kilograms (15,000 pounds). Earthscape designs and builds adventure playgrounds across Canada and the US.
The tree was cleaned, bark and sapwood removed and it was sanded to a smooth surface. Oak trees take far longer to decompose than the giant sequoias and redwoods that grow in California. This Wilmot giant oak was trucked to Presidio Tunnel Tops, a park in San Francisco not far from the Golden Gate bridge. It is part of the Outpost adventure playground there.
Children play in a 250-year-old bur oak tree that grew on the banks of the Nith River in Wilmot Township until it fell. The tree now forms part of Presidio Tunnel Tops Outpost adventure playground in San Francisco, not far from the Golden Gate Bridge. Photo courtesy of Earthscape Playgrounds.
