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Published April 30, 2009, 12:00 AM

Honking Tree

The Cut Down Honking Tree


The icon known as the “Honking Tree” had been cut down some time overnight April 30.

  • The icon known as the “Honking Tree” had been cut down some time overnight April 30.
  • (Photo by Monica Isley) Leonard Weis of Knife River counts the 113 rings to determine the Honking Tree's age.
  • (Photo by Monica Isley) Leonard Weis of Knife River gives a hands-on goodbye to the tree he calls "an old friend."
  • (Photo by Monica Isley) Jim Robb and Wendy Kihlstadius stop to pay respects to the felled Honking Tree, and to examine the memorials left by passersby.
  • (Photo by Monica Isley) The limbs have been removed, and the Honking Tree waits on May 2 to be removed to a site where it will be preserved in a way as yet to be determined.
  • Memorials cover the Honking Tree's stump, while in the background, on the wide of Highway 61, big brother white pines seem to watch.
  • (Photo by Monica Isley) "I never thought I'd be walking on the Honking Tree," said Jim Robb. Leonard Weis watches.
  • (Photo by Monica Isley) Shane Anderson, Sara Bergman, Dan Carlson, Erin Carlson and Karl Zwaschka pose in their hastily created t-shirts remembering the Honking Tree. Erin Carlson organized the Memorial Drive-by-and-Honk on May 3.
  • (Photo by Monica Isley) A caravan of cars passes by the felled Honking Tree as part of the Memorial Drive-by-and-Honk event held the evening of May 3.
  • (Photo by Monica Isley) Limbs are removed from the Honking Tree trunk in preparation for its removal from the median on Highway 61.
  • (Photo by Monica Isley) The Honking Tree is pulled from its resting spot in the median, across the ditch, and toward the waiting flatbed truck.
  • (Photo by Monica Isley) The Honking Tree trunk is gently lowered onto the waiting flatbed truck.
  • (Photo by Monica Isley) A highway crewman tightens the chain securing the Honking Tree trunk to the flatbed truck.
  • (Photo by Monica Isley) Chained and flagged, the Honking Tree is ready to roll away from the site where it stood for 113 years.