The Mystery of Big Stump

Here is an essay I read at the No Shame Theatre performance on Aug 7, 2009:

The Mystery of Big Stump

On lazy summer days at the beach, a lot of folks like to curl up with a good mystery book. But for me, the beach is a great place to let my mind wander over esoteric questions of grand scale.
You see, I love mysteries—especially real world mysteries. I am always puzzled about why things are as they are – how did the cosmos come into being? How long has it been here? When and how will it all end? Big questions like that, and like…
…where did that piece of driftwood come from? O.K., I guess that’s not a question of Cosmic importance. But like I said, I always wonder why things are as they are. And even a piece of driftwood may have a story to tell.
So, more than a dozen years ago, I was sitting on a beach near Waldport while my young grandchildren played in the sand. This particular beach is miles long and pure white sand—and in the surf zone, where the waves crash—there was a big tree stump.
Kids were actually playing on it, which got my attention because everyone knows it isn’t safe to play on driftwood in the waves.
But this huge piece of driftwood wasn’t drifting with the waves. Even more puzzling, it stood upright in the waves, as if its roots were buried deep in the sand. And this monster was ten feet tall and thirty feet around—the obvious remains of an old growth tree.
I waded through ankle deep water and climbed aboard through a gash in its side. I stood in the hollow trunk as waves crashed against it like a sailing ship tacking into the wind. It was solid – it did not move. I ran my hands over the smooth gunnels of my ship and counted the tree rings— clearly it had lived for hundreds of years.
How did this thing come to be? If it wasn’t driftwood, had it grown in some ancient soil before the present beach formed
And thus I began my inquiry.


I asked questions of local residents and the Waldport Historical Society. I spoke to the archaeologist at the nearby ranger station. I went to the Hatfield Marine Science Center and spoke to the director. I took a sample of the wood and sent it off to be identified.
Slowly, the mystery began to unfold.
I learned that the story of the Oregon Coast is one of continuous change. We live in an active seismic zone where the land rises in places and falls in others; where huge earthquakes and tidal waves take place every 500 years or so. Starting in 1997, scientists have found over 500 stumps rooted in ancient soils along the beaches – many of which can only be seen at minus tides. Earthquakes, tsunamis and rising sea levels drowned these ancient forests.
At last I received a letter from the Forest Service Wood Identification lab—and the mystery only deepened. The tree—this stump, this apparent piece of driftwood – is Sequoia sempervirens, commonly known as a California Redwood.
Fossil Redwoods reveal that in the distant past, when the climate was warm and humid enough to support their needs, these giants flourished all along the Oregon coast. Environmental range reduced their range considerably.
Today, this species is confined to a foggy coastal strip starting near Monterey, California, and barely crossing into the southern edge of Oregon. No living ancient redwoods exist within 150 miles of this lone tree, which stands to this day on the beach where my grandchildren used to play.
I still visit this ancient monument and ponder mysteries that wander through my mind, and I continue to wonder, why are things as they are?