Storms topple California’s iconic tunnel tree, a 1,000-year-old sequoia that was beloved tourist attraction

Rain storms lashing Northern California in recent days have toppled a historic tree that was a major tourist attraction for its hollowed out trunk which cars could drive through.

Thought to be more than 1,000 years old, the Pioneer Cabin Tree, a giant sequoia in Calaveras Big Trees State Park, was felled over the weekend, park officials said.

A volunteer at the park, located southeast of Sacramento, said the tree toppled Sunday afternoon and shattered as it hit the ground, unable to withstand fierce winds and heavy rain.

“We lost an old friend today. The Pioneer Cabin Tree, or drive-thru tree, succumbed to nature and toppled,” the volunteer, Jim Allday said in a Facebook posting accompanied by pictures of the fallen sequoia.

The so-called tunnel tree was already modestly famous for its size when it was hollowed out in the 1880s - there was apparently already a gaping gash at the base - and since then had become a major tourist attraction.

Allday’s wife, Joan Allday, told the San Francisco Gate website that the tree had been weakening and leaning to one side for several years.