The Great Wall of Crest Trebuchet by Denton Yocum Editors Note: The ‘Great Wall of Crest’ is what we called the temporary emergency wall that was constructed at the West Warehouse following the tornado that hit the warehouse in April 2015.
When I heard the Great Wall of Crest in the warehouse was coming down and the wood was being given away, my first thought was ‘TREBUCHET’! For those who don’t know, a trebuchet is a type of siege weapon that was used in Europe from about 1200 A.D. to the early 1300’s to destroy castles. The ones they built were huge and could throw massive rocks at castle walls. A more modern use is to throw pump- kins very far. I’ve always wanted to build one and the wall wood was a good start. I didn’t want to build something small, so mine is about 9 feet tall with an 8 foot arm. I chose the floating arm style, for its efficiency, out of about 16 cur- rent designs. Last year for version 1 (picture shown) I used a 290 pound counter weight and threw a basketball size pump- kin 320 feet. That one almost hit my brother’s grain dryer. This year for version 2 I used a 600 pound counter weight with similar distance results. I did manage to barely miss the curious cows in the pasture. I learned my new arm, although strong enough to hold the weight, was too heavy to move quickly and throw the pumpkin a greater distance. I have a plan for next year! Thank you Crest Foods for assisting me with my crazy hobby.
today. A little research has produced some great insight into Main Street life in Ashton, Illinois....all pictures are taken from the east end of Main Street where are labs and offices are looking west.
2016
January, February & March 2017 Crest Ink 17
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