There was once a forest of ash trees near the Leila Arboretum in Battle Creek, Michigan. As with thousands of these trees across North America, they fell victim to the Emerald Ash Borer disease and died.
But in the ultimate ‘if life gives you lemons make lemonade’ story the park brought in chainsaw artists who transformed them into a ‘Fantasy Forest’.
They had a competition in 2015 for the artists, who came from all over the country.
Some are the more traditional animals that you see from chainsaw artists.
Others are more whimsical.
Even though I have thousands of destinations on my list this was not on it, we just got lucky and drove by.
The website for the arboretum has before photos of the dead trees – what a great transformation.
Battle Creek Bigfoot?
My favorite – the strange disappearance of Farmer MacDonald.Notice the UFO abducting the farmer. Not seen on this view is the wife outside the cabin with a shotgun trying to fend off the aliens.
A close up of the Tree Wizard.
The sculptures are at least 10′ high.
This sculpture gives an idea of how some of trees appeared before being transformed.
A centaur keeps guard over the forest.
While a tree genie appears.
The Fantasy Forest in Battle Creek, Michigan was a great find – even if it was by dumb luck.
RDZ Photography 