Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1895 — A Giant Barber Pole. [ARTICLE]

A Giant Barber Pole.

At the entrance of Point Defiance Park stands a giant fir tree at least 150 feet in height and six feet in diameter at the base. At the very apex of that sturdy trunk one day last week a shaft of lightning struck. From the point where it first struck the tree, straight down one side for fifty feet, the bark was torn away from the body of the tree, leaving bare the surface of the wood; thence as though actuated by some spirit of mischief the bolt began a spiral course around the trunk, tearing the bark off for a width of six or eight Inches, twice completely encircling the tree in a distance of 100 feet before entering the ground.