After 1000 years of standing tall, one of world's oldest trees felled by storm - Twitter pays tribute!

Image courtesy: Wikipedia

New Delhi: California's oldest treasure - the famous Pioneer Cabin Tree – was destroyed after it fell victim to a massive storm.

One of the oldest tourist attractions, the giant sequoia is reckoned to be over 1,000 years old and stood tall in the Calaveras Big Trees State Park.

The tree was around 100 feet tall and 22 feet in diameter. It has been known to withstand the test of times after it was hollowed by lightning strikes in the 1800s and after a tunnel was cut into it in the 1880s to allow tourists to pass through. Looks like this time, it had had enough.

The giant tree came down after more than three inches of rain water fell on Sunday during a seasonal storm known as the Pineapple Express.

A statement from California State Parks read: “A combination of trunk and root decay and storm water runoff appears to have brought the giant sequoia down at its base, shattering it and a nearby cedar tree. No one was hurt.”

According to the Calaveras Big Trees Association, the tree will “most likely remain where it fell, providing habitat for many creatures and slowly decomposing to improve the soil for future sequoias,” Yahoo News reported.

#PioneerCabinTree, 1 of CA’s oldest tourist attractions & beloved specimen of a rare CA native species, fell Sunday.https://t.co/RfJkx1iGOm pic.twitter.com/2AdfylTI1J — CA State Parks (@CAStateParks) January 10, 2017

People on Twitter were seen paying tributes through their posts and reminiscing about how it looked before.

Take a look!

So sad the #PioneerCabinTree didn't make it through the storm. Here's how it looked in the 1930s. pic.twitter.com/pHphs2H9V6 — CA State Library (@CAStateLibrary) January 9, 2017

California's #PioneerCabinTree, which fell yesterday. Historic photo via records of the @forestservice, undated: https://t.co/b8si8XVAp2 pic.twitter.com/ywj0eNslKR — Today's Document (@TodaysDocument) January 9, 2017

RIP Pioneer Cabin Tree pic.twitter.com/KGs8qODpZ0 — F YEAH CALIFORNIA (@fyeahCalifornia) January 10, 2017

The Pioneer Cabin Tree clasped during the big storm in California. Around a thousand years old. Wow! That tree has saw a lot! Farewell pic.twitter.com/uZ0G2tZlxe — tim cornwell (@247razz) January 10, 2017

Sad the storm destroyed this ancient tree. Goodbye and thank you, #PioneerCabinTree. It stood for centuries at #CalaverasBigTreesStatePark. pic.twitter.com/EaNjZm2abO — Natasha Zouves ABC7 (@NatashaABC7) January 9, 2017