Driving down Phillips road you may notice the museum’s large tree round or if you are on the highway you may catch a glimpse of the round on the side of our blacksmith shop. Yes, these are tree rounds but there is much more to them than just what meets the eye. In the museum’s collection, we have multiple tree rounds which can give us a look into the past.
Looking at a tree round, there is lots of information to gather. Most likely, you were told that if you count the tree rings, you are able to tell the tree’s age when it was cut down. But, there is much more to learn about the tree’s life than just it’s age. Within a tree’s rings, you will see two different rings, light and dark. Light coloured tree rings represents wood that grew in the spring and summer, while dark coloured rings represent wood that grew in the late summer and fall. Together, one light ring and one dark ring represents a full year’s growth. As well, the wider the growth ring, the more resources the tree received. Whereas, the more narrow the growth ring, most likely the tree experienced drought or disease. As well, archaeologists can use ring patterns in a building’s timbers to estimate construction dates for old buildings.
Right now, there are three tree rounds on display at the museum. Recently put on display is one of our smaller tree rounds which is a Fir Tree Round (2011.003.001) that was cut from the trees that were standing in front of the Evergreen Shopping Centre. In order to display the tree round, multiple processes had to be completed. First it was sanded down in order to make a smooth face to display, then there was a layer of clear wood preservative added to help protect it from the elements. This tree round may be the best one to take a look at to try to see for yourself the tree’s growth rings and what it’s life was like.
Our next two on display are huge compared to the Fir Tree Round. On display by Phillips Road is our Douglas Fir Tree Round (2014.FIC.600). It is approximately 3 metres in diameter and has about 1,227 growth rings! This means the tree’s life started in 745 CE, at this time, the Mayan Civilization was starting to collapse (800CE), it was fell in 1976 from Weeks Lake. Next is our Sitka Spruce Round (2014.FIC.624). Sitka Spruce tree rounds are distinct to the others due to the unique way the tree round is shaped. At our Lord Western display, the round boasts a diameter of 4.5 metres and has approximately 478 growth rings. This trees life would have started in around 1500 and it was fell in 1979 in the Carmanah Valley.
So the next time you are at the museum, take a look for yourself and see how many growth rings you can count on the tree rounds.
