Just sitting on the couch here in MA reading the morning paper when I was shocked to read that Herbie will be cut down very soon.
http://www.telegram.com/article/20100108/APN/301089754
We love Herbie and visit whenever we travel to Maine. Hope the cache GC17D9X remains as a reminder of this great Elm tree.

Anniebananie

Waterville, in central Maine, is nicknamed "Elm City", but there are none there now.

They truly were a majestic tree...

Waterville, in central Maine, is nicknamed "Elm City", but there are none there now.

They truly were a majestic tree...

Add the words "stringy", "gnarly" and "good heating" to those adjectives. ;) :)

I like elm a lot . . . thanks to many elm and Dutch Elm Disease I was kept nice and warm last winter since I was short on time and thanks to DED most of my wood for last year came from standing dead elm which was almost seasoned even before I cut and split it.

Sorry to see the old giant go. It is a majestic tree!

I'm hoping to obtain one of the items that will be made from Herbie to commemorate the tree and maybe use it as a travel bug? Not sure if the cache will remain...seems weird to bring people to a spot where the tree was...unless the put a plaque there or something it will probably be archived at some point.

I wonder where Herbie's successor lives. I have a large elm, but doubt it's any kind of record and certainly not even close to 10 tons!

As Paul Harvey would say....."and now for the rest of the story." I think that half of the Herbie story is Frank Knight. We've seen a lot of so-called tribute caches. Here's a great reason to name a tribute cache.
http://www.sphere.com/nation/article/101-year-old-frank-knight-ends-battle-to-save-240-year-old-elm-tree/19308792?icid=main|main|dl2|link2|http%3A%2F%2Fwww .sphere.com%2Fnation%2Farticle%2F101-year-old-frank-knight-ends-battle-to-save-240-year-old-elm-tree%2F19308792 (http://www.sphere.com/nation/article/101-year-old-frank-knight-ends-battle-to-save-240-year-old-elm-tree/19308792?icid=main%7Cmain%7Cdl2%7Clink2%7Chttp%3A% 2F%2Fwww.sphere.com%2Fnation%2Farticle%2F101-year-old-frank-knight-ends-battle-to-save-240-year-old-elm-tree%2F19308792)

I have been by Herbie and have done the cache there. I am heading to Falmouth in a bit and I will stop there and take one last look. Also Quilting Mom can do that cache as well. It sure is some tree.

I believe the final count on Herbie was 217 years old making him a sapling during George Washingtons second term. Quite the life span. Hopefully they do some really cool things with the wood.