My nonagenarian father had an itch to see the town at the opposite end of Vancouver Island from his home in Victoria, so I joined him for the six-hour drive “up island” to Port Hardy. The town is named for Captain Thomas Hardy, in whose arms at the Battle of Trafalgar Lord Nelson famously uttered his final words: “Kiss me, Hardy.”

We set off from Victoria early, passing the world’s tallest freestanding totem pole — no guy wires — and by lunch had arrived in Port McNeill, a salt-stung town of about 2,300 people on the edge of the Salish Sea. The town grew out of a logging camp, and logging remains the central industry. As we entered town, a forest of road signs urged us to visit its “#1 Attraction – Largest Burl in the World.” Yes, burl, as in the bulbous, tumour-like growth that appears on trees. It is thought that trees develop burls as a stress response to insects, bacteria, fungi and other pathogens, which sends the tree’s cells into overdrive to create a protective scar. But “the exact mechanism that causes burl formation is not fully understood,” as New Hampshire forester Greg Jordan writes. “If it were, burls would probably be produced commercially for use by artisans.” Indeed, furniture makers and woodturners pounce on burls, whose swirling, unpredictable grain adds beauty to violins, cutting boards and even vehicle interior trim.

We arrived at the Harbour Lookout Family Restaurant and Pizzaria too late to order the Loggers Breakfast (three eggs, bacon, sausage, ham, hash browns, toast and waffle or pancake), so it was over Reuben sandwiches moistened with Thousand Island dressing that we read up on the world’s largest preserved tree burl on guinnessworldrecords.com. The burl was discovered in 2005 on the trunk of a 525-year-old spruce tree, an hour’s drive from Port McNeill, and moved to town through volunteer sweat and logging equipment — the tree itself destroyed in its wake. The burl is 20 feet by 20 feet and weighs 66,000 pounds, i.e., seven hippopotamuses.

We perused the reviews on Tripadvisor:

Giant tree tumour. ★★★

Very unique and interesting natural wonder. ★★★★★

Beautifully displayed. One can walk around the whole burl. ★★★★

It is debatable whether one should venture out of the way to view this attraction. ★★

We asked our teenaged server where the burl was located.

Server (waving vaguely): Up thataway.

Us: Close enough to walk to?

Server: Near the baseball field.

Us (none the wiser): Ah.

Server: But it … burned.

Us: It what?

Server (shrugging): A couple teenagers, not long ago. But it’s still the biggest burl in the world.

The server was oddly placid about the damage to her town’s greatest attraction. I wondered if she knew the teens — it being a small town, they could have been classmates, friends, even her siblings — or if she was instinctually protective, not wanting her peers to be reduced to a single adolescent blunder.

The burl caught fire and burned through an entire spring night in 2023 while members of the Port McNeill Volunteer Fire Department struggled to put it out. Two teens were caught on camera at the scene carrying what was assumed to be a jerry can of gasoline and accused of arson. The community’s anger was such that one of the accused couldn’t leave his home, even after it was determined, receipts presented, that the “jerry can” was in fact a jug of apple juice. The source of the fire was a smouldering cigarette butt, which may or may not have belonged to the teens. The exonerated youths joined efforts to restore the burl.