A beloved tree on Tillamook Bay has fallen, leaving locals and wildlife mourning its loss after over a century of standing tall.
Tillamook: So, there was this tree that everyone loved, growing out of a rock at the Three Graces on Tillamook Bay. Sadly, it just blew down. It had been around for over a hundred years, but it seems it finally gave up the ghost.
According to the Oregon Coast Beach Connection, the tree had been struggling for the last few years. Locals and tourists alike are bummed out, and I bet the cormorants that used to hang out there are feeling it too.
There’s a cool old photo from 1910 showing the tree, and folks have always been curious about how it ended up there. Erick Finnell from the Oregon Department of Forestry thinks the rocks were probably closer to the shore before the jetties were built, which changed the whole area around the Three Graces.
He speculated that a bird might have dropped the seed, or maybe it blew off a hill and landed in a little dip on the rock where some soil had gathered. “And, by a miracle, it sprouted on top of the rock,” he said.
Finnell mentioned that it was probably a pretty stressed-out tree, trying to grow in such a tough spot. The bigger it got, the more resources it needed, until it just couldn’t hang on anymore. And then the wind did its thing. What a story, right?
