Axel Erlandson was born in Sweden in 1884 and traveled with his family to the United States. At 17, he moved with his parents to a farm in Hilmar, where he developed a keen interest in the malleability of trees.
Visitors to Gilroy Gardens rarely think of them as works of art, but the Circus Trees at the South Valley theme park truly are expressions of the human spirit's creative nature. These arboreal wonders are as creatively "sculpted" as anything found in many modern galleries. The only difference is, instead of being made of stone or metal, these artworks use living vegetation to create their awe-inspiring appearance.
Today, I'd like to tell you about Axel Erlandson and how his amazing trees came to grace the paths of the amusement park on Hecker Pass. I think you'll find his story is one that can teach us much about the power of perseverance.
Erlandson was born in Sweden in 1884 and traveled with his family to the United States to live in Minnesota when he was 1-1/2 years old. At 17, he moved with his parents to a farm in Hilmar (near Turlock). There, he developed a keen interest over the next two decades in the malleability of trees.
By the time Erlandson was 40, he had invented an unusual hobby. To entertain his family and friends, he used a special technique to shape the trunks and branches of various species of trees including sycamores, ash, box elders and Spanish cork.
"He had seen some natural grafts somewhere and he decided to experiment with trees and see what he could do in making unusual shapes and things," his daughter Wilma Erlandson told me in a phone conversation recently.
The Swede farmer planned out the design he wanted to achieve with the tree, she said. He then built a wooden framework and bent the young and pliable twigs and branches around this structure to establish the desired shape. One of his first projects was the "four-legged giant" where Erlandson used grafting techniques to fuse four sycamore saplings together to create one main trunk rising from four equally spaced legs. Other projects created a perfectly shaped heart tree as well as trees with lightning bolts, diamonds and strangely woven basket-like trunks.
In the 1940s, Erlandson's wife and daughter traveled to Santa Cruz for a sea-side vacation. They stopped at the famous Mystery Spot tourist attraction nearby, and were amazed at the number of travelers who also visited the site. When they got home, Erlandson's wife jokingly suggested that the family take their unusual trees to the Santa Cruz Mountains as a travel attraction. Axel thought it was a great idea, and bought land near the town of Scotts Valley and transferred 74 of his Circus Trees there.
Soon, his roadside attraction of unusually formed trees was featured in Robert Ripley's "Believe-It-or-Not" column. Later, a photo article appeared in "Life" magazine. Prompted by the media exposure, tourists on their way to the coast stopped to take a look at the famous Circus Trees. When children asked Erlandson how he created them, he told them "I talk to the trees."
Erlandson died in 1964, and during the next 20 years, his Circus Trees languished due to lack of care. Many died. Several attempts were made to preserve the remaining plants, but their future looked bleak when a developer bought the property and decided to bulldoze them. Michael Bonfante, the owner of the Nob Hill Food Store chain, came to the rescue. In 1985, he brought 29 of the remaining trees to his nursery site on Hecker Pass. They would eventually be the star attraction of the horticultural theme park he developed on that site.
Wilma Erlandson was so proud of her father's famous Circus Trees that she wrote a book titled "My Father Talked to Trees." It's available at the gift shops at Gilroy Gardens and occasionally, she travels from her home in Corralitos to the theme park to sign copies and chat with park visitors.
"I was really happy when Michael bought the trees and moved them over there (to Hecker Pass)," she told me. "He took really good are of them and I was happy he could save them."
Axel Erlandson's Circus Trees travel attraction in Scotts Valley never turned out to be the big hit he hoped it would be. But sometimes there is a passion in our dreams that carry on even after we die. His unique tree sculptures helped inspire Bonfante to create a theme park based on the wonders of the natural world.
If it hadn't been for a Swedish immigrant farmer's unusual hobby, Gilroy Gardens would never have been the "Home of the Circus Trees." If you happen to visit the Hecker Pass family theme attraction this summer, make sure you check out these ingeniously formed trees found throughout the park and enjoy these amazing works of living art.
Martin Cheek Marty Cheek is the author of 'The Silicon Valley Handbook.' His column appears every other Friday. You can reach him by email.
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