A film produced in the 1940s, titled 鈥淩edwood Saga,鈥� tells the story of how loggers chopped down California coastal redwood trees in the 1940s. The producer, Guy Haselton, filmed the 10-minute, black-and-white movie in 1946. It demonstrates how the redwoods, 鈥渘ow the object of awe and protection, were then regarded simply as commercial assets.鈥� Home builders around the world sought the redwood lumber because of its beauty and resistance to termites and disease.
The film records how loggers with only double-bitted axes and crosscut saws felled trees up to 20 feet thick; how drag saw teams cut logs to length; how Donkey engines loaded sections onto railroad flat cars that moved logs to a pond near a sawmill; and how huge band saws ripped logs into lumber.
One reviewer said the movie鈥檚 narrative 鈥渦sefully conveys to us the ethos of a different time . . . While we are now stunned by this film of how a great natural patrimony was felled, we must also admire the grit and skill of the loggers of the time.鈥�
Today, the non-profit Archangel Ancient Tree Archive propagates genetic copies of coastal redwood trees and supplies the seedlings for replanting.
Sources: Redwood Saga. Prod. Guy D. Haselton. Prelinger Archives, 1940. Web. 16 May 2015. https://archive.org/details/RedwoodS1940; "Cloning takes California鈥檚 ancient redwood trees abroad.鈥� USA Today." Associated Press in USA Today 22 Apr. 2013. Web. 16 May 2015. <http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/22/redwood-trees-climate-change-environment/2102667/>.
