Excerpt from "The Pan-American Exposition"
The Overland Monthy Magazine, An Illustrated Magazine of the West

January 1901

Richard Gibson

Another department which cannot but interest the people of California and the Coast is that of Forestry. Something new in the building line is hard to imagine, for architectural ingenuity appears to have been long since exhausted. Nevertheless, the Forestry Building in the Pan-American Exposition appears to be unique, and if anything like it has ever been produced before no record of the fact has been kept. The general plan of too structure is that of a floor enclosed with a rail fence. Stake and rider form no feature of the structure, but the locked ends of fence corners which are formed by the worm will lend themselves to the formation of artistic lodges and comfortable seats. Hickory, being a representative American wood, will be displayed in such a manner as to illustrate why American vehicles are now preferred in every country in which they are known kind also why early shipments of American vehicles to Europe could not be sold. People who were accustomed to ride over polished road surfaces in vehicles that were usually mounted on wheels that were as substantial as those used for freight wagons refused to risk their lives on an inch spoke and a hub that was scarcely visible to the naked eye until they- learned of the. properties of a well seasoned piece of hickory wood. Since then people who know the difference take off their hats to the American vehicle and the American hickory tree. Petrified woods from Arizona will also be made a feature at Buffalo, though such exhibits are curious and of scientific interest rather than of practical and utilitarian value. In the nature of things there could be no exhibit of the forestry and lumber interests of the United States that would not include the Big Trees and great redwood groves of California. The Midwestern people cannot, therefore, but be deeply interested in this department of the Buffalo Exposition.

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