Parade Leads Old Magnolia to New Home

SAN BERNARDINO —  In one of the more unlikely parades ever seen in these parts, a tree was moved in San Bernardino on Saturday.

Led by a junior high school marching band, two huge cranes, a bulldozer and a police escort, a 6-story-tall, 100-year-old southern magnolia tree was transported 1 1/2 miles along downtown streets from a lot cleared for development to a new home in Seccombe Lake Park.

“It looks like King Kong coming down the street,” said Woody Wood, a volunteer who helped guide the vehicles on their 1-m.p.h. journey along a route calculated to avoid power lines and building overhangs.

Although heavily publicized, this particular parade came as a shock to many in town.

“I was working on my day off and my son came in yelling, ‘Dad, there’s a parade outside and this big tree!’ ” said Dennis McGrath, 37, an account executive. “I said, ‘On April 22? ‘ “

Once outside, McGrath could scarcely believe his eyes.

“What is this? Where’d this tree come from? Who’s paying for this?” he asked incredulously as the spectacle lumbered past City Hall. “I guess San Bernardino has finally made the big time.”

McGrath was one of more than 1,000 residents, elected officials and volunteers who witnessed the relocation of the 130-ton tree that for some has come to symbolize the cultural heritage of this rapidly changing community where few things more than 100 years old remain. But for others, including a mayoral hopeful, the whole thing was a big waste of money.

“This magnificent tree has survived earthquakes, a severe flood, years of scorching summers and the smoke of a (nearby) foundry,” said state Sen. Ruben Ayala (D-Chino), who helped organize the $25,000 project that was largely funded through donations ranging from the nickels and dimes of schoolchildren to a $10,000 grant from the Mervyn’s department store chain. “Way back, it even shaded a Wells Fargo stage coach station.”

City officials plan to submit the effort to the Guinness Book of World Records as the heaviest tree ever moved. “Originally, the U.S. Air Force agreed to lend us a missile carrier to transport it, but the missile carrier could not handle a 130-ton load,” said Sam Catalano, president of a group called the More Attractive Community Foundation. “So we went to the U.S. Marine Corps to borrow a tank carrier but they said the biggest tanks are only 20 to 80 tons.”

What they settled on was a specially outfitted flatbed trailer rig with 128 wheels and two cranes, one of which was a 250-ton monster brought in from Long Beach by the Bragg Crane Service.

Garage-Sized Planter

In preparation for the move, the tree was pruned and skirted with a planter box the size of a two-car garage and built with $12,000 worth of lumber donated by the John C. Morgan Production Framing Co. of San Bernardino.

The event culminated a year-long struggle to spare the tree from the chain saws of developer Ken Bussey, who is building an industrial park. In a telephone interview, Bussey said although he is not personally attached to the tree, he agreed to delay demolition a year ago this week until others could find a way of saving it.

Bussey said it is one of the ugliest trees he has ever seen.

For Dennis Mansfield, co-owner of Hydro-Gro Hydro-Seeding of San Bernardino, however, saving the tree became an obsession.

“A year ago, my partner (Woody Wood) and I made a personal crusade out of calling people and knocking on doors asking for funds to save it,” Mansfield said. “Suddenly, we had arborists calling us wanting to help.”

One of these experts was Todd Head, who along with a tree pathologist, examined the old magnolia a year ago and determined it was healthy and fit to move.

“It was full of foliage and had nice new feeder roots,” Head said. “But the key to the tree’s health is that it sat directly on top of a water table 16 feet below the surface.”

Up to 80 Feet Tall

The southern magnolia, which bears the botanical name Magnolia grandiflora, is native to the southeastern swamplands of the United States. Under ideal conditions, the tree, which is characterized by its broad green leaves and fragrant flowers up to nine inches in diameter, grows 25 to 80 feet tall.

At 9:15 a.m., the two cranes shuddered and creaked as they lifted the tree with 3-inch-thick cables attached to steel beams placed beneath the planter box. Moments later, the tree was carefully lowered onto the flatbed rig.

“We have lift-off!” cried Mansfield as hundreds of others applauded, cheered and whistled.

Meanwhile, political hopefuls facing primary elections worked the crowd.

“This symbolizes that San Bernardino, for the first time in a long time, is interested in saving some of its history, “ said San Bernardino Mayor Evlyn Wilcox.

Her opponent, former mayor Bob Holcomb, strongly disagreed.

“There’s some talk that there ought to be a society for the prevention of cruelty to trees,” Holcomb said. “This is a political extravaganza at the taxpayers’ expense.”