
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 28, 1991                   TAG: 9103280144
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: EUREKA, CALIF.                                LENGTH: Short

RAINS TOPPLE REDWOOD

A giant redwood, thought to be the world's third-tallest, toppled after rains weakened its shallow root system.

The Dyerville Giant - estimated at 1,200 to 1,600 years old - stretched more than the length of a football field.

"It's as impressive on the ground as it was standing," said Don Hoyle, superintendent of Humboldt Redwoods State Park where the redwood stood, about 235 miles north of San Francisco. "We're quite saddened by this. It was a beautiful tree."

The Dyerville Giant once stood as the tallest along Northern California's famous Avenue of the Giants on U.S. 101. It was named for a nearby town that was washed away by floods in the middle of the century.

Last measured in 1972 at 362 feet, the Dyerville Giant had a 17-foot diameter and a circumference of 52 1/2 feet, Hoyle said.

A park visitor reported the fallen tree Monday.

by CNB