When the time came earlier this summer to take down the massive silver maple tree in their yard, Marshall and Darcy Geho made the difficult decision. The tree had stood ground for as long as their house had and nearly as long as the town of Slayton’s own existence, but it was showing signs of distress, and rather than risk it falling onto the house, they decided that the time had come.
And so the crews and arrived and down it came. However Marshall, being an insightful individual, instructed the crew to leave a good chunk of the trunk standing instead of grinding it into the ground. He had plans for it. A self-proclaimed novice in the art of chain saw art, he envisioned carving a three-dimensional piece with a grizzly bear and perhaps a mountain scene winding into the girth of the old tree.
However he discovered that the center was a bit rotten and the rest of the wood was very hard, and so the plan was revised. Marshall instead decided to uncover the “tree spirit” that he knew had to be dwelling under the gnarly bark of the tree.
“I’ve done some pumpkin carving, and I’ve done lots of chain saw work,” he says. But he’d never taken on a carving project using a chain saw. It took a half a day to accomplish and when it was finished Marshall had found the old man in the tree who was staring back at him.
“That old man has gone through a long progress and has seen many things,” the artist says. “He has an anguished face.” Indeed, the 9’ high structure features a face with an over-emphasized and dramatic demeanor. The face of that grand tree has change. Surrounding the trunk are green offshoots of the maple tree that adorn it colorfully.
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