Napa's Beloved 'Moose Tree' Vandalized, But Is Missing Moosehead In Safekeeping?
NAPA (KPIX) -- Napa has lost a small-scale local landmark.
Locals call it the Moose Tree -- a big, old eucalyptus near Alston Park on Dry Creek Road -- and it was distinguished by an odd deformity growing from its trunk, a weird bulge which very much resembled the head of a moose.
Generations of folks playfully decorated the moose, painting it in Giants colors for the World Series and in patriotic red, white and blue after Sept. 11.
But, with the New Year, came a big shock -- someone had sawed off the moose.
"I just think it's really sad," Holly Schallon told KPIX 5's Don Ford.
"Who would do something like this?" Paul Garvey asked, one of the many mourners that came to commiserate with friends and neighbors who fondly remembered the old wood wart.
It was a travesty, all agreed, but there is a twist.
The eucalyptus tree was already doomed, scheduled to be removed in a few months to make way for a new housing subdivision. And there was talk of removing the moose and hanging it above Downtown Joe's, a popular bar in Napa or another public place.
KPIX talked to Joe's daughter -- and bar co-owner -- Natalie Peetman. Peetman assured us that there's a special place for the moose if it ever does turn up.
Napa city councilman Peter Mott says that the culprit, or anyone else, can drop it off at any Napa fire station at any time -- no questions asked.
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