# 40,000 year old Cypress



## Handyman (Jan 2, 2008)

I found this story in I think a Wood Digest Magazine they came to the Lumber yard were I worked.

Johnsonville, S.C
In a sand quarrie near the lynches and Little Pee Dee river in South Carolina they have been digging sand out of there for 30 plus years. They have been hitting some logs over 40 feet deep and just have been digging around them..Well one day they dug one up to take a look at it. It was over 8 foot in diameter and about 100 feet long. After sending a sample of the wood off to the University of Georgia for carbon dating, they found the trees to be over 40,000 years old. The scientists believe they are related to the modern Bald Cypress. After doing a litte more digging they figure there is a little more that one million feet of logs. They said the wood varies in strength, with the average board as strong as yellow Popular. They are cutting the trees up into lumber and selling it for $100.00 a board foot through a company called J..Alexander Wood Products in Morganton, N.C
The only thing that would this a better story is to have some pictures. Sorry I but the only picture in the magazine was a trackhoe holding one of these logs. And due to copy write laws I could even copy that. But if any of you that live close can get some pictures, they would be great to. I just though yall would like the story.


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

Here are some pictures http://www.ancientcypress.com/OurWork/ViewPhotoGallery.asp


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## Oscar (Jun 7, 2008)

It's surely beautiful stuff and I feel there are few who appreciate Mothers' livings creations (especially Trees) more than yours truly but IMHO only fools spend the kind of money they think these small pieces of tree are worth. Regardless of how old they are!


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

[email protected] said:


> but IMHO only fools spend the kind of money they think these small pieces of tree are worth. Regardless of how old they are!


Jealous :confused1::devil::laughing:
What if the trees where yours...I bet you would just sell it for $1.25 bft .


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## Oscar (Jun 7, 2008)

Jealousy is not one of my potential character flaws, though I have many! I'm not sure how I'd behave if I had a nice trunk or two. I do know the last thing on my mind would be to sell it.. I'd likely keep it (hord it) to make things out of, or to appreciate it's unmolested beauty.


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## Handyman (Jan 2, 2008)

Daren said:


> Here are some pictures http://www.ancientcypress.com/OurWork/ViewPhotoGallery.asp


Thanks Daren I know one of you sawers out there know of the story and where to find the pictures. Handyman


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## Terry Beeson (May 29, 2008)

I'd burn it for firewood cuz all you lumber and woodworkin' people wouldn't want to pay me what it's REALLY worth....

(Sound familiar to anyone south of the DFW area?)


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

I can't speak for anyone south of DFW but I know someone north of it who can relate. :yes:

Most recently, today in fact, I have traded emails with a troglodite who told me - and I quote - that my prices should be set by him, the customer. Not the market mind you but him individually. He wasn't joking either. Not making that up folks. 

He wants an electric guitar pair, a product that I have a waiting list for all the time along with acoustic back and side sets, and he wants me to think my price should be determined by him. 

Geez, that would be nice. I'll just call Geico and tell them that from henceforth me, my wife, and our five kids will no longer pay $3300 a year for auto insurance, but rather we will pay $33.00 a year. After all, we are the customer and we set the prices.

I usually have patience with people because they have no idea what all goes into logging and processing and marketing wood, especially this species as it has a higher than average waste factor, much higher, but some are just plain morons and there is no other way to describe them. 

I did tell him he could probably contact a guy in Illinois named Daren to find what he was looking for. Told him Daren was his man because he is just in it for the fun of it not the money. :laughing:


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

TexasTimbers said:


> I did tell him he could probably contact a guy in Illinois named Daren to find what he was looking for. Told him Daren was his man because he is just in it for the fun of it not the money. :laughing:


Don't you dare:bangin:, you know I do this because it is "fun" (yea I'm deranged for those who don't know me like TT does)...but you also know darn good and well I have my fair share of "them". I just typed a reply to a guy from Indiana wanting *21* bft of my _cheapest_ hardwood, didn't care what kind-just cheap. And was going to drive 150 miles each way to pick it up :confused1:, guess gas is really cheap over there.


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## aclose (Nov 11, 2007)

Daren, since you're in it for the 'fun', could i have some of that super wide, wicked looking 'cheap' walnut you've got in your stash??? :clap::laughing:


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

aclose said:


> Daren, since you're in it for the 'fun', could i have some of that super wide, wicked looking 'cheap' walnut you've got in your stash??? :clap::laughing:


See what you started TexasTimbers :laughing:, now they are coming out of the woodworks. aclose, your gonna have to _find_ my stash...then I will still run you off :gunsmilie:


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## jeffreythree (Jan 9, 2008)

Did I hear someone call? By the way I live in the Cross Roads north of DFW, not one of the 9 others south, east and west of DFW. I found a source for some big cypress logs, looked up one of my old high school buddies that has some property down by Houston with some barrow pits. We're gonna burry some of those cypress logs in the sand and drive over them a couple of times with a small dozer. Pack the sand in real good and rough them up some. I went to school down at University of Houston, and one of the guys I still keep in touch with is now a dendrochronologist. I bet he will date those suckers to 40,000 years for a piece of the pie.:laughing:


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## woodworks (Feb 12, 2008)

Daren said:


> See what you started TexasTimbers :laughing:, now they are coming out of the woodworks. aclose, your gonna have to _find_ my stash...then I will still run you off :gunsmilie:


Daren, I see in the aforementioned post that you mention me by name. Are you wanting my address so you can send me some of than cheap wood??? If so, please just pm me. If not, keep my name out yo mouth!!!

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing:


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

Daren I expect a commission on all this "business" I'm sending your way. :laughing:


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## Terry Beeson (May 29, 2008)

Cheap hell.... You guys send ME a cashier's check for a couple thousand dollars and I'll come to your place and get that rotten ol' firewood you've got stacked around your shops out of your way..... :yes:


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## woodworks (Feb 12, 2008)

TexasTimbers said:


> Daren I expect a commission on all this "business" I'm sending your way. :laughing:


Wow! This guy is something else. First he gives you free advertising, then he turns around and wants a commission. With friends like this, who needs enemies. Obviously, he is in it for the money and not the fun. :yes:


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## Daren (Oct 14, 2006)

woodworks said:


> With friends like this, who needs enemies.
> 
> Obviously, he is in it for the money and not the fun.


The first statement is true :laughing: (not really), you couldn't be more wrong about the second :no:. It is a fun sandwich for TT, a little bit of money between 2 thick slices of fun. We have known each other/done business for many years now. I know I am not the only one who will say if he has a fault it is over generosity and willingness to help in any way he can (if that is a fault :confused1 Don't let his sense of humor make you think anything else. I am sure some of the banter that goes on here can be confusing from a 3rd party view, but it is all in good fun between old friends, and new ones we have made here too.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

I couldn't have said it better myself Daren. that sandwich analogy is great. Accurate too. I have made very few (count 'em on one hand), what I call actual friends in the real sense of the word on this confounded contraption, but you are one of the few and right there at the top. 

Now before we get too serious and I go have my happy cry, save my commission checks up until they hit 5 figures (to the left of the decimal) before you send them.


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## ecologito (Jan 27, 2008)

TexasTimbers said:


> He wants an electric guitar pair, a product that I have a waiting list for all the time along with acoustic back and side sets, and he wants me to think my price should be determined by him.


Hi,

I think you should reconsider. Whenever he sets the price tell him that he is going to get what he pays for. Get him a guitar from walmart if that is what he is willing to pay. 

We all love top of the line products and services but we have to be realistic and settle for what we can afford. It is irrational to believe otherwise. 

But rmemeber : "it's better to shoot for the moon and land in the woods that shoot for the woods and land in the moon".

Cheers:smile:


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

Yeah, this was a different sort of deal though. You'd have to read the emails. He was wanting to control the transaction to the "nth" degree. He could afford the price. He finally agreed the price was fair but that now he wasn't going to pay shipping. It was a long way to get there though. He had worn me out with his control freak emails and wasted enough of my time already. I ain't got time for control freaks. I told him he had no idea how much time, money, energy, and waste was involved in getting this species to market, and so how could he know what I should charge. He cut off his nose to spite his face as far as I'm concerned. 

You can please some of 'em, some of the time . . . . . . . . .


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## Allthumbs27 (Dec 25, 2008)

Terry Beeson said:


> I'd burn it for firewood cuz all you lumber and woodworkin' people wouldn't want to pay me what it's REALLY worth....
> 
> (Sound familiar to anyone south of the DFW area?)


Why not just mulch it up and put it in the dog house they would surely appreciate a tree of that caliber. Or how about send it to a toothpick farm.


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## Allthumbs27 (Dec 25, 2008)

why not just mulch it up and put it in the dog house. They would surely appreciate a tree of that caliber. Or send it to the toothpick farm.


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