Skip to comments.
Troubled Northern California Town Sees its Roadside Oddity Obliterated in Car Crash
SFGate ^
Posted on 11/28/2023 4:53:13 PM PST by nickcarraway
The rise and fall of Orick's 9-ton redwood peanut By Ashley Harrell Updated Nov 21, 2023 11:28 a.m.
On a brisk November evening, on a drive through the tiny town of Orick some 300 miles north of San Francisco, I scanned the roadside in search of a giant, famous peanut.
The 6-foot-tall, 9-foot-wide, 9-ton peanut was carved from a redwood trunk by chainsaw back in 1977. Loggers then transported it to Washington D.C. as part of a protest against the expansion of Redwood National Park, which threatened their livelihoods. They hoped to present it to President Jimmy Carter, a former peanut farmer, with an attached sign that read: “It may be peanuts to you, but it’s jobs to us!”
Instead, the president’s aides turned the peanut away, and the loggers drove it back to Orick.
The park expanded, the town of Orick fell into decline, and the peanut has been sitting in a gas station parking lot ever since.
Well, what remains of it, that is. Earlier this year, someone crashed a car into the peanut, transforming it into a pile of rotten wood fragments.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
TOPICS: Local News; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: apply4welfare; donatefreerepublic; jimknows
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-31 next last
To: nickcarraway
2
posted on
11/28/2023 4:54:39 PM PST
by
Openurmind
(The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world it leaves to its children. ~ D. Bonhoeffer)
To: nickcarraway
3
posted on
11/28/2023 4:58:32 PM PST
by
Beowulf9
To: nickcarraway
To: nickcarraway
I'm more partial to giant carved redwood trout than I am to peanuts.
5
posted on
11/28/2023 4:59:55 PM PST
by
ProtectOurFreedom
(“Occupy your mind with good thoughts or your enemy will fill them with bad ones.” ~ Thomas More)
To: nickcarraway
I can’t believe that people weren’t coming from all over the world to see that.
To: nickcarraway
This was the peanut in its glory days.
A brief shining moment of fame.
7
posted on
11/28/2023 5:10:31 PM PST
by
SamAdams76
(6,390,901 Truth | 86,874,940 Twitter)
To: HartleyMBaldwin
Well it’s off my bucket list now.
8
posted on
11/28/2023 5:10:56 PM PST
by
gibsonguy
To: nickcarraway
To: Openurmind
So is this. (Been there, kinda interesting.)

10
posted on
11/28/2023 5:15:16 PM PST
by
moovova
("The NEXT election is the most important election of our lifetimes!“ LOL...)
To: Openurmind; Beowulf9; one guy in new jersey; HartleyMBaldwin; SamAdams76; gibsonguy; ...
Was it created by George Washington Carver?
To: SamAdams76
Kinda looks like something else....might have been a double entendre sculpture...
12
posted on
11/28/2023 5:18:58 PM PST
by
Getready
(Wisdom is more valuable than gold and harder to find.)
To: nickcarraway
Dunno
The mayor of Eureka came on tv about it. Compete with cigs rolled up his Tshirt
Legend
To: nickcarraway
Kinda looks rotted enough that a bicycle hitting it would do the same damage.
14
posted on
11/28/2023 5:24:20 PM PST
by
cyclotic
(Don’t be part of the problem. Be the entire problem)
To: combat_boots
I remember thinking it doesn’t look much like a peanut way back then. It looks to be nonsalvagable.
15
posted on
11/28/2023 5:27:28 PM PST
by
Delta 21
(If anyone is treasonous, it is those who call me such.)
To: nickcarraway
Orick's nine-ton peanut in its better days:
16
posted on
11/28/2023 5:28:22 PM PST
by
jonrick46
(Leftniks chase illusions of motherships at the end of the pier.)
To: Getready
"...Kinda looks like something else....might have been a double entendre sculpture..." LOL, THIS is the all time winner:
17
posted on
11/28/2023 5:30:39 PM PST
by
rlmorel
("The stigma for being wrong is gone, as long as you're wrong for the right side." (Clarice Feldman))
To: SamAdams76
I have to say...I have ALWAYS had a fondness for these kinds of things...one of my favorites:
18
posted on
11/28/2023 5:32:48 PM PST
by
rlmorel
("The stigma for being wrong is gone, as long as you're wrong for the right side." (Clarice Feldman))
To: nickcarraway
19
posted on
11/28/2023 5:38:47 PM PST
by
smokingfrog
( sleep with one eye open (<o> --- )
To: nickcarraway
20
posted on
11/28/2023 5:46:17 PM PST
by
bigbob
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-31 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson