The Golden Spruce

Continuing in the tradition of Into the Wild, and The Last American Man is a great book I found here in Vancouver called The Golden Spruce. Author John Vaillant has been compared to Jon Krakauer and Sebastian Junger, and tells the story of British Columbia logging scout Grant Hadwin. In the Winter of 1997 in a wild act of eco-terrorism and protest, Hadwin took a chain saw to a unique 300 year old Sitka tree known as the Golden Spruce.

Cutting down a tree is hardly newsworthy, but this particular tree was a scientific marvel (earning its own Latin classification) and sacred to the Haida people of the Queen Charlotte Islands. The Golden Spruce was a perfectly healthy tree whose needles shone golden in the sunlight. People who saw it describe it taking their breath away. In a land of almost constant rain and cloud cover, this one tree was an anomaly that was studied, photographed and woven into myth. It was also the pet tree of Bloedel Lumber, the logging company Hadwin worked for and became increasingly disillusioned with.

Hadwin grew up in the logging community in British Columbia and seemed absolutely born to live and work in these harsh conditions. He would spend weeks on end exploring the mountains and forests with an eye for where best to lay in roads so logging equipment could gain access. He was so comfortable in the woods that he was able to stay out for weeks at a time with very little gear. He loved the forests and began to realize the irony in his position as one of the last people to see old growth forests before they were logged into oblivion.

The book dives into the psychology of Hadwin and what would drive someone to act the way he did. He’s definitely a compelling character and a force to be reckoned with. Hadwin confessed to the crime but failed to appear at his court date. His damaged kayak was found on a remote Alaskan island weeks later, and many believe he is on the run to this day, vanished into the wild forests where he was so at home. This case is still open by officials in both British Columbia and Alaska, and Hadwin’s wife has been trying for years to have him declared dead, so she can get on with her and their children’s lives.

The felling of this one tree caused such an outrage that before his disappearance Hadwin began to fear for his life. It’s certainly possible that he could’ve made a run for it and is still out there somewhere. When he was ordered to appear in court for his sentencing, Hadwin knew that to travel by ferry or small plane out to the islands would make him an easy target for locals who have been known to take the law into their own hands. He decided instead to paddle by kayak, a voyage of at least a week for an experienced paddler. Hadwin attempted this crossing in February when the Hecate Strait is one of the most dangerous pieces of water on an unpredictable coast.

All that is known is that Hadwin never showed up at the end of that week to appear in court, and has since vanished. John Vaillant tells this story beautifully, taking us into the troubled mind of Hadwin, the complex myth of the Haida, and the world of logging – the most dangerous land-based job in North America. The wounds left behind by the felling of the Golden Spruce are still raw for many, and this book captures that heartache with all the beauty of these northern woods.

Check it out here