When Johnny saw that lone Chestnut Oak tree standing in the woods, its bark dry and its branches dying, he knew at once that this was the tree. Perhaps the foreman had been joking when he told him to pick any tree in the sector to the northeast of the logging camp, but Johnny was serious. Today, he was going to prove himself a competent logger. The tree would be a test, and if he passed the test, he would have a summer job and the opportunity to earn extra money to help out at home.
Johnny took a moment or two to assess the terrain, to decide where to cut and how the tree would fall down. It was a monster of a tree, probably at least 150 years old. His trusty axe was good and sharp. He mentally counted to three and swung it, making a first notch in the bark of the tree. Then, he got into the rhythm of the work. As soon as the wedge was wide enough, he made the felling cut. Man, it felt good as the tree crashed down. Mission accomplished!
The foreman was quite impressed with his progress, and Patterson was not exactly an easy man to please. “Well, I guess you’ve earned getting a handle on the chainsaw,” he said. “It’s lunchtime now, but you can get started on that afterwards.”
Johnny couldn’t wait. As he chopped off some of the branches, he noticed a hollow right near the top of the branch. And still being a kid, he peered inside. “Hello, anyone home?” he shouted. He really liked the way the acoustics inside the tree made his voice sound hollow and bounce around. He was about to have another go before any of the loggers came back from their break when he caught sight of a pair of luminous eyes staring back at him.
“Whoa, what was that?” Despite it being just afternoon, John was totally creeped out. The other loggers had left for their lunch break, and he was all alone in the middle of the clearing. When he started running, he only realized where his feet were taking him when he found himself knocking on a front door he knew pretty well growing up.
Johnny had always gravitated toward the big logging station that was located less than a mile from his home. He really admired the loggers, big burly bearded men who took on the giant trees of the backwoods. At first, they merely tolerated his presence, but Johnny worked hard to earn their acceptance by performing minor chores for them and offering to help in any way he could. One day, when he had just turned 12, the foreman had a huge surprise for him.
He issued him with his own set of safety gear, including steel-toe boots and earmuffs, and told him to report to Al Stone for training. From having hung out there, Johnny already knew a lot about logging but was keen to get some hands-on practical training. He soon learned that the foreman had another reason for assigning Johnny to work with Al. As Mr. Stone was getting on in years, he was struggling to meet the daily quotas for work. However, with Johnny’s youth and Al’s many years of experience, they made a formidable team. And by the time Al was ready to retire a few months later, Johnny knew everything he needed to know. Although Johnny no longer saw Al regularly at the logging yard, he kept in touch. Al lived nearby, and Johnny loved his stories about the olden days. If anyone knew about a ghost or tree spirit haunting the area, that would be Al.
That afternoon, when Johnny arrived at Al’s doorstep, he was completely out of breath. The wise old logger told him to calm down, and little by little, Johnny told him about his triumph with the large Chestnut Oak and the scary thing in the tree. The whole story piqued Al’s interest, and he soon followed Johnny back to the logging yard. He brought his headlamp along and shone it deep into the tree hollow. When he showed Johnny what it was, the youth was totally astounded. This was not what he had expected at all. What they saw was the mummified remains of a dog. But how had it gotten up there, inside the tree?
As the loggers returned to the yard after their break, they were surprised to encounter Al. But when he showed them what was in the tree Johnny had cut down, they all began to talk at once. “This is something for that doctor who did that study last year,” the foreman suggested. So, they called the doctor. She was an arborist called Dr. Wendy Breams, and she arrived later that very afternoon. She took some samples and then explained to Johnny just how important his accidental discovery was. The dog must have been wedged inside the tree for decades, maybe even more than a century. And thanks to the unique conditions inside the tree, its body had remained perfectly preserved. This was because the tree secreted tannic acid, which can act as a preservative.
Everyone recognized at once that this discovery was much too important to just cut up into timber. And after some discussion over the next few days, the massive tree trunk with its grizzly contents was removed and installed at the Southern Forest World Tree Museum in Georgia. This exhibit took up a prize position within the museum and drew many additional visitors, thanks to its uniqueness and also the expert scientific commentary provided by Dr. Breams.
The museum later held a contest to determine a name for this unknown dog, and the name that won was Stucky. Johnny got his job at the logging yard, and with some of the money he earned, he saved up to go to college, where he got a degree to study forestry. Dr. Breams herself wrote his recommendation and helped him to apply for a scholarship. Everyone was sad to see the young boy leave, but they all knew he was destined for important things in the city.
And at the same time, another boy who had once been as young as Johnny was coming back to town. When Zeke Thomas visited the Tree Museum in Georgia, he never expected to come face to face with a piece of his own personal history. Zeke was 82 years old and walked with difficulty, but that didn’t change his absolute enjoyment of the day-long excursions the Golden Pines Retirement Village organized for its residents on the second Wednesday of each month. Early in the morning, they would all file into the little bus, chattering like schoolchildren, and visit places like the Botanical Garden, the Georgia Aquarium, the Georgia Guidestones, or Fox Theater.
At the Southern World Forest Tree Museum, he admired the carved eagle, the rocket model, and the talking tree. But the one exhibit that really got to him was that down tree stump. And when he saw what was wedged inside, he couldn’t believe his eyes. There, staring right back at him with baleful eyes, was Old Red, the best dog that ever walked the earth.
What a discovery! Zeke had to sit down, his eyes filled with tears, as he remembered that fateful night when Red went missing. Zeke was barely 19 then, but he made good money because the dogs he trained were the best. In fact, he often used his own pair, Red and Scar, to demonstrate his services. On that particular night, they were chasing a mean raccoon that wreaked havoc night after night in Bill Henderson’s Peach Orchards. His dogs were keen for the chase, and Red soon found the miscreant. But then he did something strange and unexpected. As the raccoon perched right above, taunting them, Red got so jazzed up for that critter that he jumped and ran right up the tree. Zeke had never seen anything like it.
The night rang with their voices, Red’s barking and the screams. Zeke had his rifle ready, and he was so focused on making the kill without hitting Red that he barely noticed when the dog’s barking grew muffled. And then that miserable piece of flesh had the audacity to get away. Zeke understood there and then that his beloved Red had passed away. There was no reason to cut down the tree and get his body out. However, his other dog didn’t understand that his best friend was gone forever. Scar looked for his buddy for days after. In fact, Zeke had to retire him because he wouldn’t stop barking at trees that had no coons in them.
What a sad ending for both dogs. Was Stucky Zeke’s long-lost dog, or was he really a much older specimen, going back to a time before the American pioneers?
If you have a similar story about a mystery from the past, tell us in the comments. We’d love to hear it. For now though, we’re out of here. We’ll see you in the next video. Go!
