Sul blog MessyNessyChic, Cabinet of curiosity è possibile leggere un articolo corredato di molte fotografie nel quale si racconta come alla fine del XIX secolo le case scolpite all’interno di enormi ceppi d’albero fossero piuttosto comuni in Oregon, Washington e in California, stati dove l’industria del legname era in piena espansione e lasciava un vero e proprio mare di ceppi a terra. I pionieri utilizzavano questo legname di scarto per costruire case, piste da ballo, hotel.

Known as the sentinels of the West, these giants were kind of like mythical beasts for the rest of the country. Folks wrote home with stories both grand and heartbreaking, of new lives lost and found amongst the Jurassic trees (the oldest sequoia fossil dates 135 million years back). Not to mention, stories of gold – and where there is is gold, there is industry, which meant that the undertaking of logging the trees became urgent. The logs were so large, they had to travel down through rivers as makeshift rafts. It could take men a month to fell a 1,000-yr-old sequoia, and when the deed was done, it often became a dance floor….

Queste immagini, che ci mostrano persone danzare sui resti di esemplari millenari di specie in via di estinzione, mettono a disagio, se si guardano con la sensibilità dei nostri tempi. Ma in molti casi questi pionieri  stavano semplicemente riusando quello che i taglialegna avevano lasciato, sfruttando al meglio i pezzi di legno ritenuti “inutilizzabili”. Materiali, preziosi per la loro solidità, che non costavano nulla.

Stumps became sheds, huts, and houses. They became a place to store your animals, provisions, and anything else that needed the kind of security the walls of a tree that could grow over 30ft (over 9 metres) wide. They were so wide, and so solid, you could carve a tunnel through them. Most importantly? They were free.