The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and GreedA tale of obsession so fierce that a man kills the thing he loves most: the only giant golden spruce on earth. When a shattered kayak and camping gear are found on an uninhabited island in the Pacific Northwest, they reignite a mystery surrounding a shocking act of protest. Five months earlier, logger-turned-activist Grant Hadwin had plunged naked into a river in British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Islands, towing a chainsaw. When his night's work was done, a unique Sitka spruce, 165 feet tall and covered with luminous golden needles, teetered on its stump. Two days later it fell.As vividly as John Krakauer puts readers on Everest, John Vaillant takes us into the heart of North America's last great forest. |
Contents
| 3 | |
| 7 | |
The People 21 3 Wildest of the Wild | 35 |
The Tooth of the Human Race | 53 |
The Beginning of the End | 69 |
A Boardwalk to Mars | 81 |
The Fatal Flaw | 99 |
The Fall | 123 |
Hecate Strait 159 11 The Search | 179 |
The Secret | 191 |
Coyote | 207 |
Over the Horizon | 215 |
Epilogue Revival | 233 |
WOOD MEASUREMENT | 241 |
ENDNOTES | 243 |
| 251 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Alaska American Angus archipelago boat British Columbia called Canada Canadian canoe cedar century chain saw clan coastal conifer Cora Gray dead despite eagle early European faller feet fire forest forestry Gold Bridge golden spruce grafts Grant Guujaaw Hadwin Haida Gwaii Haida Nation heavy Hecate Strait high riggers human hundred Indians kayak killed kind known land living loggers logging industry look Lukoff MacMillan Bloedel Meanwhile miles mountain named native needles Nor’westmen North America North Pacific Northwest Coast Old Masset old-growth once one’s paddle Paul Bernier percent Personal communication pole Port Clements Prince Rupert Queen Charlotte Islands rainforest raven recalled sea otter ship Sitka spruce Skilay Skilay’s skins species story stump survive Sziklai tall thing timber Tingley tion Tlingit trade tree tree’s tribes trunk turn Vancouver Island waves West Coast wind wood Yakoun River Yakoun Valley