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Power, strength and danger. Retired logger Michael Maras sees all these qualities in the larger-than-life bronze figures recently installed at the new Logging Legacy Memorial Park in downtown Enumclaw. A drover with his goad stick and a pair of oxen joined by a yoke are all bent forward, their backs and their shoulders straining atop a huge slab of sandstone.

Hooves and hobnail boots push forward as one.

Still to be installed is a 20-foot long, 5-foot- diameter bronze log that will connect to the oxen by bronze chain. A Tacoma foundry is putting the log pieces together.

“I think it is a great thing,” Maras said of the memorial taking shape in his hometown.

“For some of us, growing up with those men – dads and stuff – they were our heroes,” said Maras, 61. “They need to be remembered. The military has its memorials.”

The park will pay tribute to the more than 8,000 dead and 65,000 injured in the logging industry in the state in the last 100 years, according to Tom Poe, president of the Logging Legacy Memorial Park Foundation. It has raised close to $550,000 since 2002.

Maras, who grew up in a logging family and worked in the industry for nearly 26 years until his knees gave out, knows the toll the woods can take on bodies and lives.

He was injured a couple of times. He also remembers a hot July afternoon in 1984 when his best friend died in his arms on a hillside in the woods after being run over by a log skidder tractor.

Poe is a jeweler, not a logger, but he has a deep sense of community and the history of Enumclaw. He also had the vision for a memorial.

Enumclaw isn’t the logging community it once was, especially with the closure of Weyerhaeuser’s White River Mill in 2003. But Poe said there’s still a footprint of logging in the surrounding woods.

He took his idea for a memorial to Enumclaw sculptor Dan Snider. The artist came back with the stylized oxen and drover dragging a log, the same kind of logging that cleared the plateau in the 1860s.

“I started carrying around a small mock-up in bronze,” Poe said.

The nonprofit foundation was formed and the fundraising began.

The city donated parkland in front of the Enumclaw Library. Poe said it took eight or nine meetings with city committees and commissions to get the go-ahead.

“It wasn’t without opposition,” he said. “It’s different, a little larger than life and meant to be striking, enduring and tell the story for a long time.”

Donations came primarily from private individuals, close to 300 of them, he said. There also were corporate donors, including Weyerhaeuser, Mutual of Enumclaw and the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.

Chuck Nelson from the Wilkeson Sandstone Quarry donated the 136,000 pounds of sandstone base for the bronzes as well as for the benches, rocks and pavers in the park.

Nelson’s huge mobile crane lifted the heavy pieces into place.

Poe said that if he had to bid out the project today, it would cost $2 million.

“Both the artist and the foundry felt it would be a signature piece and they were willing to work more for exposure,” he said.

Poe said that for him the work epitomizes “the resolve and toughness these loggers had. This was the spirit of the Northwest. It was tough and rough.”

Kevin Keating of The Bronze Works in Tacoma is rushing to cast and assemble the bronze log in time for the June 14 dedication. The log is made up of 84 pieces that must be welded together. Each of the oxen had 65 pieces.

The entire sculpture will use 15,000 pounds of bronze, Keating said. The foundry has been working on it for 18 months.

“It’s pretty much the largest overall project we have ever done,” he said.

Keating said those involved were proud to be part of a local project of such magnitude.

“So many of our bronze pieces go outside the area,” he said. “We don’t get to brag about them.”

The oxen drew immediate attention when they were installed. A plan to cover the sculpture until dedication day was scrapped.

“They look so powerful,” Carol Smith said as she and her husband, Brit, strolled around the memorial last week. Landscapers were hard at work.

“There is such a rich history here,” she said. “I think it’s sad there is no real logging presence anymore.”

Allan Magstadt of Enumclaw Landscaping also liked what he saw.

Tags: deep sense, drover, foot diameter, footprint, hooves, landscape, landscaper, landscapers, Landscaping, larger than life, log skidder, logging community, logging industry, maras, memorial park, pair of oxen, park foundation, poe, sculptor, taking shape, weyerhaeuser, yoke
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If you’re an architecture buff, here are some details on why these and seven other buildings should be on your must-see list. While you’re in town, you may also want to visit the Center for Architecture at 536 LaGuardia Place; details on current exhibits at www.aiany.org.

CONDE NAST BUILDING: 4 Times Square, Manhattan, by Fox %26 Fowle Architects, 1996-1999. This 866-foot tall skyscraper in the heart of Times Square is what Bell calls “environmentally correct,” with state-of-the-art air quality and energy conservation systems.

BROOKLYN MUSEUM: Entry pavilion and plaza, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, by James Stewart Polshek, 2004. The glass and steel circular structure modernized the museum’s imposing 19th century Beaux Arts facade while making it inviting and accessible, a suitable centerpiece for Brooklyn’s burgeoning hipster art scene.

PRADA NEW YORK: 575 Broadway, near Prince Street, Manhattan, by Rem Koolhaas, 2001. A wave of zebrawood is the centerpiece of Prada’s flagship store, in Soho. “It displays the merchandise, it doesn’t sell it,” said Bell.

ROSE CENTER FOR EARTH AND SPACE: At the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, Manhattan, by James Stewart Polshek, 2000. This illuminated 87-foot diameter sphere, which appears to be floating in a huge glass cube, houses the Hayden Planetarium and Space Theater.

APPLE STORE SOHO: 103 Prince St., Manhattan, by Ronnette Riley and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, 2002, with Apple’s creative team, including CEO Steve Jobs and others. If you’re looking for the Apple Store on Prince Street, you’ll be forgiven for doing a doubletake or maybe even walking right past it. The exterior is a 1920s stone and brick post office, with the original “STATION A” signage above the entrance. The inside is distinguished by clean, white space and an inviting glass staircase to a glass bridge upstairs.

GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL: 42nd Street and Park Avenue, Manhattan, by Reed %26 Stern and Warren %26 Wetmore, 1903-1913, restored by Beyer, Blinder %26 Belle, 1998. The famed train station’s Beaux Arts Classical design is known for its arches, clock, constellation ceiling and cathedral windows. The building’s beauty was restored in a project completed in 1998, and the corridors were enlivened with exhibition space and interesting places to eat and shop. Free tours ($10 suggested donation) sponsored by the Municipal Arts Society, Wednesdays, 12:30 p.m.; meet at the information booth on the main concourse.

MORGAN LIBRARY EXPANSION: 33 E. 36th St., at Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, Renzo Piano, 2006. Piano’s expansion of the Morgan Library, a 1906 Beaux Arts building designed by McKim, Mead %26 White, is considered one of his masterpieces, with glass walls linking the old and new.

CHRYSLER BUILDING: 405 Lexington Ave., at 42nd Street, Manhattan, by William Van Alen, 1930. This building is not as well-known as the Empire State Building, but Bell thinks it should be (even though it doesn’t have a public observation deck). It’s a phenomenal example of Art Deco architecture that is both elegant and fun, from the distinctive tiered crown, easily picked out from the city skyline, to the enormous gargoyles shaped like radiator caps.

HEARST TOWER: 951-969 Eighth Ave., near 56th Street, Manhattan, by Sir Norman Foster, 2004. This 42-story tower was built atop the original six-story home of the Hearst media empire. The diagonal gridwork and see-through glass panels, with no vertical supporting columns, make this sleek design unique in the world.

SEAGRAM BUILDING: 375 Park Ave., near 53rd Street, by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson (design architects) and Kahn %26 Jacobs (associate architects), 1958. “It was this building that transformed our skyline,” said Bell. The building is a perfect glass box, elegantly proportioned and set back 90 feet from the street.

Tags: amp, apple store, centerpiece, eighth ave, exhibition, foot diameter, roadway, skyline
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The Christmas tree was free, but, oh, those shipping charges.

A 30-foot-tall gumbo-limbo tree literally lumbered across East Marco Bay on Monday afternoon, sailing upright as if in command of the barge that will bring it, via a short flatbed ride, to Naples Botanical Gardens today.

The 30-foot tree is a coincidentally seasonal gift of Marilyn and John Wrucke of Marco, who didn’t want to destroy the tree when they tore down their 31-year-old Grapewood Court house to build a larger one. The estimated $25,000 cost of the move was a gift of Collier Enterprises.

Photo Gallery

Moving a Gumbo Limbo tree

Workers from O’Donnell Landscapes of Estero, fasten a 31-year-old Gumbo Limbo tree onto a barge Monday, November 26, 2007 after it was removed from a plot on Marco Island owned by Marilyn and John Wrucke. The tree was being transported on the barge up to the Naples Botanical Garden where it will be planted .

 

Enlarge photos | View thumbnails

The move was a production of Hollywood proportions. A team of five workmen from O’Donnell Landscapes of Estero had to chop the tree’s roots, some of them the thickness of a weightlifter’s biceps, into a 40-foot square of earth. Then they drove an iron pin through the tree’s 3-foot diameter trunk at hip height and two more at about 12 feet up to function as handles, reducing stress on the tree limbs.

Monday morning, three Allied Construction workers outfitted a 120-ton crane at the waterfront edge of the Wrucke’s property. By 1 p.m. the tree and its huge block of remaining roots were hefted onto a waiting barge and strapped to the deck with fabric-wrapped chains.

A small crowd of professionals and neighbors then watched the second moment of success: The tree had been trimmed correctly to sit flat on the deck after the crane hooks were removed. Although the tree is among the company’s larger jobs, project manager Judy Austin said she’d handled a bigger one: “A 40-foot tabebuia for my home,” she said with a grin.

By 2:30 the tree had easily sailed under the Judge S.S. Jolley bridge, churning across Marco Bay where the 37,000-pound cargo originally was to spend the night before being steered into Hamilton Harbor. But tug captain Nick Lile said the smooth journey would have the tree at Hamilton Harbor before 5 p.m. Monday.

Hamilton Harbor is allowing the barge to unload its tree, where it will get enough pruning for a flatbed trip of less than a mile to the gardens. Ellin Goetz of Goetz %26 Stropes, general landscaping supervisors for Naples Botanical Garden, said the donation was a godsend.

“I was envisioning a large, shady gumbo-limbo on the terrace, but you aren’t taking anything larger than 12-by-12 (feet) down a public road legally,” she said. “When I heard about this offer, I jumped. I thought: ‘It’s Marco? It’s on the water!’”

The fact that it is a gumbo-limbo — that’s Bursera simaruba in botanical terms — gives it good odds of surviving such a drastic move. The gumbo-limbo, considered particularly compatible with Florida’s changeable moisture levels, is an easily grown specimen. Its nickname, the Tourist Tree, comes from its slightly red, peeling bark — and the way its leaves disappear in April with the temperate winter days.

“It’s a deciduous tree. A move like this will make it lose its leaves a little early, but that’s a natural thing and they’ll come back,” said Brian Holley, executive director of Naples Botanical Garden. The decision to seek the full-grown tree would give them a 31-year advantage for a fairly young botanical garden, he said.

“Also, to some extent it’s a statement to the community that we’re all about saving trees, “ he added.

Holley said the cost of the move related almost equally to its age: “When you think about it, it’s about $1,000 a year, “ he said. “The truth is, this tree looks like it’s 75 to 100 years old. It’s got great genes.”

It’s also proof of the Florida gardener’s adage that if you put a stick in the ground here it will grow. Claudia Curle and her late husband, Fred, received the founding branch from a handyman shortly after they built the Grapewood Court home in 1976.

“It was kind of an educated planting. I’d seen other gumbo-limbo trees,” she said, “At that point, we did much care. We were young and we needed landscaping. It was a lot, and we needed plantings.”

When the Wruckes were looking for another place for the tree, they contacted Curle’s daughter, Chris Curle of Marco, who alerted the botanical garden.

“A lot of people made this happen,” said a happy Marilyn Wrucke on Monday. “I’m glad it will have a home.”

Tags: foot diameter, landscape, Landscaping, moisture levels, plantings
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