Sometimes it isn't all about beauty.

[Stumper]

In 1893 the Kettle brothers left Canada in a wagon bound for the Wet Mountain Valley of Colorado to build a new ranch. They brought with them their worldly goods and a little willow tree. The back story of WHY they would take the trouble to transport a tree halfway across the continent is lost to current generation but they know that the tree has been there since they built the cabin that is enclosed within the current house and headquarters and that it came with them on their journey.

I didn't think to take pictures of it before I pruned it but here it is after removal of a 1/4 cord of firewood and a couple pickup loads of brush. Five different tie-ins to work the dead out of the crown. Started on the lead on the front of the second pic and re-crotched my way across. Nothing really hard. Multi-trunked, non-symmetrical, basal sprouts I chose to leave for the tree health and the birds I think it is a cool old tree for a willow.

 

[flushcut]

Nice! Most willows around here don't make it to be that age.

 

[pantheraba]

Over 100 years old...cool to know some history on a tree like that. Neat you got to work in it. I am sure lots of folks have climbed that tree over the years.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Can't see where you did a thing! Nice!

 

[woodworkingboy]

Nice symmetry, Justin.

 

[DMc]

Nice old tree and a well executed trim job. Do you know if that is a Bay/Laurel willow, ' Salix pentandra'?

 

[woodworkingboy]

Never knew that Bay/Laurel applies to another species, beside the tree out in California, Umbellularia Californica, if memory serves me well. The fragrant Bay leaf used in cooking, and a great woodworking wood.

 

[DMc]

Sorry for the confusion. That is why I used bay/laurel as in either or, not the tree you are referring to, the Bay laurel. It is also why botanical names are so helpful. The laurel willow has a darker green and glossy leaf than most other willows. We have quite a few around here as it was a popular tree to plant in the late 1800's.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Appreciated, confusion, Dave, I never knew there was a laurel willow.

 

[Stumper]

I'm unsure of the specie. Thanks Jay-while it looks fairly symmetrical from the angle of the first pic it really isn't. I tweaked for symmetry but mostly a was just deadwooding. On a willow that age I didn't want to stress it. Life is hard enough at 8000 feet. Add 120 years on a genus not noted for longevity and I didn't want to take much live tissue.

 

[Old Monkey]

Sounds like a good call to me.

 

[stig]

That would be VERY big for a pentandra growing on dry land.
At least in my part of the world, which, after all, is it's natural range.