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Amazing Circus Trees part 1

© Keith Muraoka

(First of a 2-part series)

Some may have heard about California's newest amusement park, Bonfante Gardens in Gilroy. It is unique in that it uses horticulture as its theme. To that vein, the amazing Circus Trees are featured -- strange, twisted living trees that have intricately been woven into shapes like circles, hearts, lightening bolts, basket weaves and rings.

But did you know the true story of these examples of man's patience and imagination? For instance, did you know that the Circus Trees got their beginnings way back in the 1920s in California's San Joaquin Valley by Axel Erlandson, a bean farmer in Hilmar? Or that the collection of contortionist-like trees appeared often in Life magazine in the 1950s, have been listed in Ripley's Believe It or Not some 10 times, as well as the Guinness Book of World Records? Or that the trees were part of the Lost World attraction in Scotts Valley, where they sat amid larger-than-life fake dinosaurs in the early 1960s? How about the fact that they were sold to a Southern California landscaper by the name of Joe Cahill back in 1977, and were once destined to possibly grace the estates of Bob Dylan and Herb Alpert?

Ah, the history of these amazing trees are steeped in historical tidbits! Bonfante Gardens' owner, Michael Bonfante, rescued 25 of the original 74 spectacular trees back in 1984 when the specimens were going to be bulldozed for a subdivision. But did you know that Santa Cruz residents were trying their hardest not to let them fall to bulldozers? A Santa Cruz architect by the name of Mark Primack (and supporters) went so far as to repeatedly illegally enter the Scotts Valley property to water and keep the remaining trees alive. In 1984, Ripley's Believe It or Not in San Francisco even expressed an interest in possibly buying the trees.

And yet, if it wasn't for Michael Bonfante's creative vision, the 29 current sycamores, box elders, ash and Spanish cork trees, in all likelihood, would not be around today.

Sealing a deal back in 1984, Bonfante began the painstaking task of moving the trees to Gilroy for his long-planned horticultural theme park. A 12-man crew from Bonfante's tree nursery took several weeks to safely dig and box those trees they felt would be able to survive the 50-mile move. Then, the trees sat in Scotts Valley for almost a year. In the fall of 1985, the trees were moved -- one by one -- on huge flatbed trucks to Gilroy. Bonfante had to procure 11 different

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