science

Nooksack Giant

Nooksack Giant is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Nooksack Giant rather than just read about it. In short: The Nooksack Giant was a superlative Coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii) that grew at Loop's Ranch (now Alpenglow Farm) in Maple Falls in Washington State. It was felled in early 1896 on the Alfred Bruce Loop Homestead with a crosscut saw by a team of men at the North Fork of the Nooksack river.

Key takeaways

Nooksack Giant belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Nooksack Giant to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Nooksack Giant from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Nooksack Giant was a superlative Coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii) that grew at Loop's Ranch (now Alpenglow Farm) in Maple Falls in Washington State. It was felled in early 1896 on the Alfred Bruce Loop Homestead with a crosscut saw by a team of men at the North Fork of the Nooksack river. The tree was measured with a tape after felling at 465 feet (142 m) in length, 33 ft 11 in (10.3 m) in circumference, or nearly 11 feet (3.4 m) in diameter at the base, and measured 220 feet (67 m) to the first limb. Ring count showed this tree to be 480 years old. A cross section of the tree was displayed on the corner of Railroad Avenue and Holly Street in New Whatcom (now Bellingham) with a wooden placard nailed to it noting the particulars of the tree. Several photographs and photo engravings were taken of the tree's cross section while it was displayed for several years after its cutting, which are on file in the Whatcom County Museum, and in digitally archived news reports and lumber journals. The history of this largely forgotten tree gained a modern resurgence with its re-discovery in digital archives in 2009 by Micah Ewers, an amateur big-tree researcher who had found references to it and 100 other historical Douglas-fir trees in Puget Sound reportedly over 350 to 400 feet (110 to 120 m) tall in the 1890s-1920s. Seattle Times Columnist Ron C. Judd dubbed the tree the "Nooksack Giant" in his 2011 article, where he interviewed both Ewers and Bill Devine, current owner of the Alfred Loop Homestead. The height of 465 feet (142 m) would make the Nooksack Giant easily the tallest tree ever reliably recorded on the planet. Anecdotal reports do exist of other Douglas fir and mountain ash trees reaching 400 to 500 feet (122 to 152 m), such as the 435 feet (133 m) "Ferguson Tree," a Eucalyptus regnans of the Watt's river, Australia in 1872, or the 415 feet (126 m) Lynn Valley Tree, a Douglas fir felled in 1902. They are often dismissed as unreliable; however, some are considered plausible and even well documented. One such example is the historic "Mineral Tree," a 393 feet (120 m) Douglas fir. The placard recorded that the Nooksack tree produced 96,345 board feet (227.348 cubic meters) of the "finest quality" lumber. The New York Times regarded the tree in a March 7, 1897 issue as the "most magnificent fir tree ever beheld by human eyes" and called its destruction a "truly pitiable tale" and a "crime". The Morning Times of February 28, 1897 claimed that the wood, sawed into one-inch strips, would reach from "Whatcom [the tree's location] to China". Considerable skepticism remains among tree researchers because 465 feet (142 m) is close to the theoretical height limit for the species, and even a recorded 415-foot (126 m) tree from 1902 has debated measurements. However, some big-tree experts find the over 400-foot (120 m) height claim for the Nooksack Giant believable because of its incredible lumber yield of more than 96,000 board feet (226.534 cubic meters) which was far higher than the 60,000 board feet (141.584 cubic meters) typically produced by 350-foot (110 m) Douglas firs. During a timber cruise along the Nooksack river in 1891, 15 miles (24 km) west of Loop's Ranch, two Sumas lumbermen and surveyors, John M. Saar, and S. H. Soule, reported standing Douglas-fir trees measuring from 9-foot (2.7 m) to 14-foot (4.3 m) in diameter, estimated at 350 to 400 feet (110 to 120 m) in height. They noted one grove in particular located within 656 feet (200 m) of the railroad tracks, along the Nooksack river, south of present Everson, "in all reasonable probability, the finest group of fir trees west of the Cascade Mountains. The diameter of any individual member does not exceed nine feet, but the extreme height, estimated by good judges to be from 350 to 400 feet (110 to 120 m), the symmetry and perfection in every way is the admiration of those who have viewed them"..."On one acre it was estimated the fir timber would produce a half-million feet of lumber and half as much more of cedar. A single tree near the group rises perfectly straight from the ground, close barked and without a blemish, full two hundred feet or more to the first limb. Its diameter is nine feet, and its height possibly four hundred feet."

See also List of individual trees List of tallest trees

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Nooksack Giant

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Nooksack Giant claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Nooksack Giant before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Nooksack Giant ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Nooksack Giant

In research: Nooksack Giant appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Nooksack Giant in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Nooksack Giant is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1890s in Washington (state), History of Whatcom County, Washington, Individual Douglas firs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Nooksack Giant outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Nooksack Giant in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Nooksack Giant means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Nooksack Giant out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Nooksack Giant in simple terms?

Why does Nooksack Giant matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Nooksack Giant?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Nooksack Giant.