A followup to my earlier post.
Update (Feb. 21, 2012): Here's a link to the earliest media reference I can find to this oddity so far, from The Seattle Times, Nov. 17, 1993:
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19931117&slug=1732351
Please also check my other post:
The Vashon Bicycle in a Tree: Why Has It Gone Viral?
Update (Mar. 3, 2013): More photos at Morty Comix # 2540
Update (Feb. 21, 2012): Here's a link to the earliest media reference I can find to this oddity so far, from The Seattle Times, Nov. 17, 1993:
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19931117&slug=1732351
Please also check my other post:
The Vashon Bicycle in a Tree: Why Has It Gone Viral?
Update (Mar. 3, 2013): More photos at Morty Comix # 2540
I was glad to find this article of yours!
ReplyDeleteThere is a motivational poster circulating to "THANK A VET", with the story that a young man left his bike at the tree, went off to war, and never came back. It is a tear jerker for sure. But looking closely at that bike it appeared it was a small tike's size bike, NOT one an 18 yr old would be riding. Turns out from this article, the real boy was about 9 and he stated it was too small for him. Ha! I was right ;-)
In tracking down and posting this article I was just doing my job as a librarian. The number of hits on this post is greater than the next 18 most popular combined! In some ways my blog is as much a captive of this post as that bike is a captive in that tree, but believe me I'm not complaining. There have been some accounts saying the bike was originally chained to the tree, but I saw no evidence of such a chain when I visited the site last year.
ReplyDeleteNice story about "Thank A Vet".
ReplyDeleteI believe there is something amiss about the height of the bike in the tree. If the owner indeed left the bike on the ground leaning on the tree, even after scores of years later, the bike would still be at ground height. Trees don't grow upward after the trunk is established...they grow outward.
On the other hand, if this bike was originally hung up at a seven foot height, then it would still be at that seven foot height.
But that poses another question. If this is a Douglas fir, it take 80 years for the trunk to be limbless from the ground up to sixteen feet. At 80 years, the DBH, (Diameter at Breast Height) would be only about 21 inches. The diameter of the tree in the photo looks to be about 36 inches. That would make the tree about 100 years old or more.
If the bike were placed against the tree in WWI (1912) the tree would have been but a sapling. If th bike were placed against the tree in WWII the tree would be only 67 years old.
There's no conclusion here, just some data for mulling over.
Awesome Answer. Im A Forestry Major, That Bike Was Never On The Ground. Thank You Silvics Class. Its Funny How Gullible People Are...
Deletethank you for posting the real story... it would make my grandmothers day ... i am sure she's smiling down right now...
ReplyDeletethe daughter of the real bike owner!
~adair puz
Thanks Adair! If you have any additional details I am sure Morty the Dog readers would enjoy reading them. I must say it is quite an unusual sight to behold. This post is almost always the most popular one on this blog every week.
ReplyDeleteWow, this really didn't explain anything. Misleading headline. How did they bike get up there?
ReplyDeleteTrees Only Grow From Their Tips, TheBike Was Put Up Into The Tree, Thats Science. He May Have Forgot The Bike In The Woods, But Someone Put It Up into The tree, Then Tree Grew Around It.
ReplyDelete