A mighty white pine grew southwest of the armory on 2nd Avenue South in Wisconsin Rapids and escaped the axe of lumberjacks for many decades. The tree was 181 years old, and it was 78 years old and already quite a tree when the Civil War ended. A huge log cut from it is 18 feet long and 41 inches in diameter, containing over 500 board feet of lumber. Logs such as this provided the raw material for log drives down the Wisconsin River and for the local lumber mills in the early pioneer days of the city.