The Oldest Inhabitant

On the corner of Brookside Avenue and Love Creek, Ben Lomond, stands this ancient giant redwood. The tree, whose trunk was too distorted to warrant felling when Love Creek was logged in the late 1800s, was spared and still stands today.

Image: Robinson Collection, San Lorenzo Valley Museum.

Gloriously twisted and gnarled this distinguished tree was pictured on postcards, such as the one shown here. This postcard, among others of Ben Lomond, was produced exclusively for William H. Nicholson, the then postmaster of Ben Lomond. He owned property on Love Creek. The tree was also depicted in the San Francisco Chronicle, 1915, in a full-page article on Ben Lomond and its surrounding area.

Once scorned by lumbermen, crooked and twisted redwood timber was soon sought after by cabinet makers. It was aptly described in the Pacific Monthly magazine: “The grain of “curly redwood,” when polished stands out in exquisite shadings, showing its silken lines as clearly as if a wood-nymph’s wavy tresses had been perpetuated in the tree.”

Oakland locally renowned artist Charles R. Hall, who moved his art gallery to Main Street, Ben Lomond in the mid-1930s, found a very unusual specimen of redwood on Love Creek in 1932. The specimen was described as a “knot” rather than a burl and in 1935 was described as “the only piece of its kind ever discovered.” It was growing on the remains of a tree that had been felled many years before.

The knot, which weighed over three tons, had a diameter of nearly five feet, and was big enough for fifteen large tables, did not resemble redwood in composition. Because of the “tigerish” stripes which waved through the wood, Hall referred to it as “Tiger Redwood,” and sent samples to many wood experts for analysis, who were evidently baffled. A table made from the Tiger Redwood was exhibited at the state fair in Sacramento in 1935 where it won a gold ribbon. Hall was reputedly offered $10,000 for the table, which he refused.

In 1936, Hall received three gold medals for his work at the state fair, with the curly top Tiger Redwood table taking the highest award. The tabletop was described as resembling red and white streaked marble.

Hall also named another distinct type of redwood, “Tuskin Redwood.” A burl of this was found in the river bed when new concrete pier foundations were dug for the bridge at Dickenson’s Hotel (at the south end of Ben Lomond).

An example of a curly redwood chair and picture frame can be seen on exhibition at the San Lorenzo Valley Museum.