On the morning of July 30, 2008 we had a severe lightening storm and LOTS of rain. We were working at the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center and Linda called and said they had had a really close lightening strike, but she didn't know where it hit. When we came home about 1:00 pm we could see the old tree directly in front of the Smith Log Home was all splintered and had yellow caution tape around the area, so we knew that must be the place the lightening had struck. We drove over to look at the damage and talked with Bob Parrott who manages the Farm area and the Sacred Grove. He told us that they would be cutting down the old tree the next morning. He said there was a rather odd circumstance about the whole thing, explaining that just about 30 minutes before the lightening struck he had been on the phone with his supervisors in the Facilities Management Dept. and they had discussed that old, dead tree. They had concluded that even though it ought to come down, they just didn't have it in the budget for this year, so they would have to wait until next year. Thirty minutes later the lightening struck the tree and just exploded the top of it. Bob smiled and said, "It's coming down in the morning -- suddenly it's in the budget whether they like it or not." After it was cut down they counted the rings in the tree stump and said the tree was between 180 and 190 years old.
The force of the lightening that day also "fried" our wireless internet connection for the 2 apartments in our house. The picture below shows our house in relation to where the old tree was. Sister Cattani, our neighbor found a piece of the tree (about 20 " long and 5-6" across) only about 5 feet from the house. It took nearly 2 weeks to get a new modem and router to fix our internet.
Our house is the white one you see in the background of this picture.
