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((Use mdy dates|date=March 2023))

((Short description|Farmer and Tree shaping artist))
[[File:twolegtree.jpg|thumb|right|Two Leg Tree]]
'''Axel Erlandson''' (December 15, 1884 &ndash; April 28, 1964) was a [[Swedish American]] farmer who [[tree shaping|shaped trees]] as a hobby, and opened a horticultural attraction in 1947 called "The Tree Circus",<ref>((cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wt0DAAAAMBAJ&q=%22The+Tree+Circus%22&pg=PA164|title=Popular Mechanics Dec 1955, Vol. 104, No. 6 ISSN 0032-4558|date=December 1955|publisher=Hearst Magazines|accessdate=April 7, 2010))</ref> advertised with the slogan "See the World's Strangest Trees Here".<ref>((cite news |url=http://articles.latimes.com/2001/aug/09/local/me-32314 |title=Going Out on Some Weird Limbs - Los Angeles Times |publisher=articles.latimes.com |accessdate=April 7, 2010 | first=Peter H. | last=King | date=August 9, 2001))</ref>

The trees appeared in the column of Robert ''[[Ripley's Believe It or Not!]]'' twelve times. Erlandson sold his attraction shortly before his death. The trees were moved to [[Gilroy Gardens]] in 1985.

==Biography==
[[File:Needle n thread.jpg|thumb|Needle and Thread Tree]]
Erlandson was born in 1884, in [[Halland]], Sweden, to Alfred Erlandson (1850–1915) and Kristina Larsson (1844–1922). He had two older brothers, Ludwig (1879–1957) and Anthon (1881–1970), and one younger sister, Emma Swanson (1886–1969). The family emigrated to the United States in early 1886, settling in New Folden Township, [[Marshall County, Minnesota]], where his father farmed and built barns, homes, and churches. His family also ran a [[limestone]] [[kiln]], producing [[quicklime]] for [[mortar (masonry)|mortar]], [[plaster]], and [[whitewash]]. Limestone rocks were collected from the surrounding fields and the men and boys kept the kiln fires going 24 hours a day during the processing time.

As a young boy, Axel produced a working model of a [[threshing machine]], but was disappointed when told by his parents that he could not take it along when they moved to California. In 1902, the family loaded their possessions into a rented box car and moved with a couple of other Swedish families to live at [[Hilmar, California|Hilmar]], a new [[Evangelical Covenant Church]] colony in the [[Central Valley of California]] promising irrigated land for farming operations.

He married his wife, Leona Bobbett (1896-1978), in 1914 and they had one daughter, Wilma. He farmed outside of Hilmar, near his parents, raising [[bean]]s and other crops. There, inspired by having observed a natural [[inosculation]] in his own [[hedgerow]], he began in 1925 <ref name="Living Architecture"> ((Cite journal |author= Thomas Vallas |others=peer reviewer Luc Courard |title=Using nature in architecture Building a living house with mycelium and trees |url=http://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/frontiers-of-architectural-research/|journal=Frontiers of Architectural Research |date=May 25, 2017 ))</ref> to shape trees as a hobby to amuse himself and his family.<ref>Correspondence from A.N. Erlandson to Wallace Davis, March 24, 1952, [[Santa Cruz, California]], Museum of Art and History, special collections</ref><ref>Book title ''People from Halland'' ((ISBN|1-157-33563-2)), ((ISBN|978-1-157-33563-4)) [https://books.google.com/books?id=MFVFSwAACAAJ&q=shaped+trees+%22axel+erlandson%22 Google books]</ref> Very few people other than his sister and a few close family friends knew of his early work shaping and grafting trees. He created designs on paper first and then planted small trees in the specified patterns; [[pruning]], [[grafting]] and bending them according to his plans. Erlandson taught himself over a period of decades how to train the growth of trees into shapes of his own design he considered his methods trade secrets. When children asked how he got his trees to grow like this, he would reply, "I talk to them."<ref>Erlandson, Wilma, ''My Father Talked to Trees'', 2001 P.13 ((ISBN|0-9708932-0-5))</ref><ref name="living works"/>

==The Tree Circus==
[[File:Erlandson basket.jpg|thumb|The "Basket Tree"]]
In 1945, Erlandson's daughter and his wife visited the ocean near [[Santa Cruz, California]], where they saw people lined up to pay to see such oddities as tilted buildings at the [[Mystery Spot]]. They returned home and mentioned offhandedly to Axel that if his trees were on a well-traveled tourist route, they might draw people who would pay to see them. Axel jumped on the idea and bought a small parcel of land, on the main road between the [[Santa Clara Valley]] and the ocean, in [[Scotts Valley, California]], where he started the process of transplanting the best of his trees to their new home.<ref>[http://www.goldenstatenewspapers.com/press_banner/scotts-valley-s-tree-circus-lost-world-revisited-part/article_7da094ee-c8eb-11e4-bee0-c7cd0026a93d.html Scotts Valley’s Tree Circus, Lost World revisited Part 1]</ref> To create the "Basket Tree", Erlandson planted six [[sycamore]] trees in a circle, topped them all at one foot, then [[Grafting#Approach|approach-graft]]ed them together one to another to form the diamond patterns. For the first ((convert|8|ft|m|abbr=out)) he left an opening at the top. This specimen today is featured as the centerpiece of [[Gilroy Gardens]].

His roadside attraction The Tree Circus opened in the spring of 1947. On June 4, 1947, Erlandson wrote to [[Robert Ripley]] sending him 2 photos of his trees and inviting him to visit.<ref>Correspondence from A.N. Erlandson to Robert Ripley, June 4, 1947, Santa Cruz, California, Museum of Art and History, special collections</ref> Over the years, Erlandson's trees appeared twelve times in Robert's column, ''[[Ripley's Believe It or Not!]]''.<ref>''Turlock Journal'' p. 15, (Obituary) April 30, 1964</ref> Income from visitor admissions was scant, however, as the 1940 opening of [[California State Route 17|Highway 17]] had gradually routed tourist traffic away from the old stage route. In 1955, a relatively good year, the Tree Circus brought in $321.20.<ref>Santa Cruz, California, Museum of Art and History, special collections</ref> ''[[Life (magazine)|Life Magazine]]'' ran a pictorial in its January 14, 1957, issue, improving attendance.

The ecosystem ecologist, Nalini M. Nadkarni has written about the circus trees, and [[arborsculpture]] and many other tree arts in her book, ''Between Earth and Sky: Our Intimate Connections to Trees''; she calls Erlandson the "grand old man of arborsculpture."<ref name="Between Earth and Sky">((cite book |last1=Nadkarni |first1=Nalini M. |title=Between Earth and Sky: Our Intimate Connections to Trees |date=2008 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |jstor=10.1525/j.ctt1pntz0 |isbn=978-0520261655 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pntz0 |access-date=July 30, 2021))</ref>

=="The Lost World" and beyond==
In 1963, Erlandson sold the property for $12,000, to Larry and Peggy Thompson. They kept Erlandson as a hired caretaker. Erlandson died the following year in [[Capitola, California]].<ref>[http://www.goldenstatenewspapers.com/press_banner/scotts-valley-s-tree-circus-lost-world-revisited-part/article_0a0580ec-ce6f-11e4-8667-47dc76ea253a.html Scotts Valley’s Tree Circus, Lost World Revisited Part 2]</ref> Larry and Peggy Thompson had created and featured 25 to 30 enormous realistic life-sized models of many different species of dinosaurs, which attracted the attention of the passing traffic,<ref>newspaper Santa Cruz Sentinel by Wallace Baine [http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_14031739 santacruzsentinel.com] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402144710/http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_14031739 |date=April 2, 2012 ))</ref> installed a stream, and prepared to expand the attraction to several times its original size. They named the whole park "The Lost World." They renamed the grove of Axel Erlandson's Tree Circus to "The Enchanted Forest".

[[File:cubetree.jpg|thumb|Cube Tree]]

Larry Thompson died before The Lost World could open. Peggy Thompson, left to raise three small children, managed to open the park successfully for a few years. She then tried to sell and the new owners defaulted. Subsequent lease owners went in and out of business.<ref>Reames, ''Arborsculpture: Solutions for a Small Planet'', 2005 p.64-71 ((ISBN|0-9647280-8-7))</ref>

In 1977 the property was purchased for commercial development by Robert Hogan and the trees were scheduled to be bulldozed.<ref>''The Valley Press'', February 7, 1990</ref> Mark Primack, a young architect, began documenting the trees and their story and received an art [[Grant (money)|grant]] to draw and record them as they were. Joseph Cahill, a landscape designer, paid Hogan $12,000 for the trees and was given two and a half years to move them. Cahill cleaned up the site, and "Suddenly the good citizens of Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley were upset." A committee called the Friends of Scotts Valley Tree Circus was formed by Joe Cucchiara to keep the old trees put.<ref>Mard Naman, ''New West Magazine'', p. 24–26, August 25, 1980</ref> At times Primack and his friends risked arrest for trespassing in order to water and feed the trees. Primack was quoted as saying "I know of no other single person who has taken ornamental grafting to such an extreme, it is not just an oddity. It demonstrates an intriguing option for improving our environment by creating an absolutely unique space of [[living sculpture]]."<ref>''[[Santa Cruz Sentinel]]'', November 1, 1981</ref> Efforts to have the trees declared historical or a cultural resource failed and Cahill's window for moving the trees closed. Hogan's plan for development did not materialize.

==Bonfante Gardens==
In 1985, Michael Bonfante, owner of [[Raley's Supermarkets|Nob Hill Foods]], a grocery store chain, and Tree Haven, a tree nursery in [[Gilroy, California|Gilroy]], California, bought the trees from Hogan and transplanted 24 of them to his new amusement park, Bonfante Gardens, now called [[Gilroy Gardens]], in Gilroy. Two of Axel's most famous trees are the Needle and Thread Tree plus The Basket Tree.<ref name="living works">Title Turning young trees into living works of art Date August 31, 2014, Publisher Sunday Observer (Sri Lanka, India) HT Digital Streams Ltd.</ref>

Preserved dead trees from Erlandson's collection reside today in the [[Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History|Museum of Art & History]] in [[Santa Cruz, California|Santa Cruz]], California. One tree was loaned to the [[World Expo 2005]], [[Aichi, Japan]] for display in the Growing Village pavilion. Erlandson's "Telephone Booth Tree" is on permanent display at the [[Baltimore]], Maryland [[American Visionary Art Museum]].

==See also==
* ((annotated link|Topiary))
* ((annotated link|Espalier))
* ((annotated link|Arthur Wiechula))
* ((annotated link|Christopher Cattle))
* ((annotated link|Richard Reames))
* ((annotated link|Fab Tree Hab))
* ((annotated link|Full Grown))
* ((annotated link|Tree shaping methods))

==References==
((reflist))

==External links==
*[http://www.markprimack.com/treecircus.html History of the Tree Circus]
*[http://www.treeshapers.net/visionary-creators World Tree shapers, history and links]
*[http://markprimack.com/pages/tree_circus/tree_circus.html/ Designs and photos of Axel N Erlandson art] ((Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141230052029/http://www.markprimack.com/pages/tree_circus/tree_circus.html |date=December 30, 2014 ))
*[http://www.treeshapers.net/axel-n-erlandson Axel Erlandson]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070123120827/http://www.arborsmith.com/treecircus.html Axel Erlandson]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090116234905/http://www.arborsmith.com/krubsack.html John Krubsack from the book Arborsculpture]
*[http://www.treeshapers.net/john-krubsack John Krubsack]

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((DEFAULTSORT:Erlandson, Axel))
[[Category:1884 births]]
[[Category:1964 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Halland]]
[[Category:Outsider artists]]
[[Category:American horticulturists]]
[[Category:Swedish emigrants to the United States]]

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Arthur Wiechula (edit)
Axel Erlandson (edit)
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