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Can you imagine a Douglas fir tree 417 feet high, 77 feet in circumference, 25 feet in diameter, with 10-inch thick bark?
Known as the “Cary Fir,” this photograph shows what is alleged to be a giant fir supposedly felled in Lynn Valley in August 1895 by George Cary (shown on ladder).
Local citizens of all ages proudly pose with the mammoth felled tree. In the 1920s, a group of lumber men from Canada used this photograph to trick their colleagues from Washington into thinking that B.C. firs were bigger than California Redwoods.
The photograph and impressive stats were published in the Western Lumberman and several other reputable publications as fact.
Years later, under expert examination, the tree in the photograph was concluded to be a California Redwood and the people posing – a clever photo-manipulation. Cary's involvement in the felling, and the photograph, is also a fiction. Nevertheless, the hoax persists in popular memory.
Visit the MONOVA website for more information about the history of the North Shore and to learn about MONOVA: Museum of North Vancouver opening in 2021.
Currently, the Archives of North Vancouver at 3203 Institute Rd. in Lynn Valley is open by appointment only. Contact: [email protected]
