It seems that everybody wants a piece of the honking tree.
Two Harbors Mayor Randy Bolen said the Minnesota Department of Transportation intends to cut several sections out of the tree to give to different government agencies in the area, including the city of Two Harbors, Lake County, local historical societies and possibly the Lake Superior school district.
"We need to have some type of historical record of this," he said. "It means too much to too many people to let it be forgotten."
Nicole Miller, a 21-year-old Lake Superior School District graduate, loved the tree so much that she would consider paying to get her own slice of it.
"It is kind of an unsaid thing, but everybody loves that tree," she said. "I drove past it every day on the bus from seventh to 12th grade. ... I just can't believe it's gone."
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Bolen said that allowing community members to make claim to some of it isn't out of the realm of possibility.
"It's still too early to say exactly but it's possible; right now [MnDOT] is just trying to figure out how to get rid of it," he said.
One suggestion has been to carve some of the wood into an image to put on display, said MnDOT employee Steve Baublitz.
