TRAVERSE CITY -- Rick Paid can still recall his sixth-grade fight under the big walnut tree at Willow Hill Elementary -- and his romantic trysts under the tree years later.
So when he learned the landmark hardwood was being removed for a school expansion project, he jumped at the chance to salvage it.
"It was a really big tree when I was a kid, and I'm 54 now," said Paid, owner of Rare Earth Hardwoods.
The tree that stood to the west of the school's old driveway was removed with others in June to make way for a new driveway, part of a two-phase project aimed at accommodating more students after redistricting, said Paul Mahon, director of capital projects for Traverse City Area Public Schools. The project is expected to be completed by the end of August.
"We all hate to see trees go, but one positive thing we saw is that the clearing of trees was kept to a minimum," Mahon said. "We only took trees out where we couldn't force the driveway in a different direction."
The black walnut tree -- also known as eastern walnut or American walnut -- was about 35 feet tall and about 6 or 7 feet in diameter at its center, Paid estimated. Although its growth rings were covered over with wax to keep it from cracking, it appeared to be about 100 years old.
"The limbs themselves are the size of some trees," he said.
Its size and species made the hardwood among the more valuable trees his company has taken down, said Nathan Kalchik of Kal Excavating in Omena, which oversaw the excavation work.
"Walnut is more of a rare tree," Kalchik said. "It's pretty rare that you're taking one down. Usually we don't have wood you can salvage anyway. It's too small. It's more often used for firewood. We have one salvageable tree every year or two and even then it's maple, oak, beech and ash."
Kalchik's company bid on the project accordingly and contacted Paid to see if he'd be interested in buying the tree. With offices in Traverse City and Brazil, Rare Earth Hardwoods specializes in domestic and imported lumber and wood products for use in custom furniture, flooring and cabinetry.
"When they told me where it was I knew right away what it was," said Paid, who affectionately calls the tree "Nutzilla." "I know every walnut tree around here."
A premium hardwood known for its color, lustre, density and grain, walnut is prized by furniture makers especially because it can be made into a thin veneer to cover less expensive woods. Because the supply is short, logs from a large, top-quality black walnut tree can fetch several thousands of dollars.
Paid said the Willow Hill tree proved to be solid and unaffected by an apparent lightning strike sometime during its life. The 20,000-pound hardwood yielded two main logs of about 12 and 20 feet each.
"You never know what it's going to be like inside until you cut it," he said. "This tree is as solid as a tree ever gets in the world. When it is sawn, it will render some of the most figured wood known to man."
He said the tree's limbs will be cut into lumber for cabinets and wide plank flooring while the logs will be sawed into huge planks and sold over the Internet for custom tables in places like Hollywood and Manhattan.
"These are special. These are like a piece of art," he said, adding that he may keep some of the lumber for his own projects. "These are for the people who have money and think outside the box."
Walnut lumber prices increased by over 50 percent from 2000 to the end of 2007, according to Purdue University forest economist Bill Hoover. They've dropped recently due to the economic downturn, but prices still are above historic levels, said Elizabeth Jackson of the Indiana-based international Walnut Council.
That has made the trees a target of thieves in some parts of the country.
In Flint, walnut trees growing on the grassy landscaped edge of a main city street were stolen in December.
And earlier in 2007 thieves snatched saplings from a city park there as soon as they were planted.
Paid won't divulge how much he shelled out for the Willow Hill walnut or how much he expects to get from it in return. He said salvaging it is a perfect example of what he tries to do in his business: take what was left behind by clearing and would have gone to waste, and put it to good use.
If he had his druthers, he said, the tree would have remained standing.
"This tree is real special to me," he said. "If it lasted another 500 years I'd have been happy."
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