A century ago, loggers felled a colossal tree in northern California. Left behind was the “Fieldbrook Stump”, a gargantuan nub of gnarled timber more than 32ft wide.
The tree itself, a coast redwood, might have been 3,000 years old and was taller than Big Ben. If alive today it would probably surpass the General Sherman, the giant sequoia that is now the largest tree on Earth. One of the mightiest things ever to live, the Fieldbrook Redwood suffered an ignoble end: a British businessman is said to have turned a single slice into a dinner table to seat 40.