IRON WOOD

(Circa 1949) The Whitethorn Lumber Mill shut down because it needed a new part. I went to Eureka, California with my mother and stepfather to get the new part. What a surprise. The new part was a piece of wood about 3 feet long, 2 inches wide and 1 inch thick. I had been expecting something made of steel or iron. When my stepfather handed me the wood, I was flabbergasted. It was as heavy as iron. He called it iron wood.

On my recent trip to Humboldt county I found a little store that actually sold iron wood carvings. The owner told me they were machine carved because they were too hard to carve by hand. Remembering the trip to Eureka in 1949, I had to have one of the carvings. I bought a 4 inch bear. As expected it was as heavy as iron.

I later looked up iron wood on the net and found it is only grown in the Sonora desert. It will not float on water. Live trees are not used for carvings but from fallen limbs and trees. Most of it is machine carved because it is so hard.