Axel Erlandson

The family emigrated to the United States in early 1886, settling in New Folden Township, Marshall County, Minnesota, where his father farmed and built barns, homes, and churches.

Limestone rocks were collected from the surrounding fields and the men and boys kept the kiln fires going 24 hours a day during the processing time.

As a young boy, Axel produced a working model of a threshing machine, but was disappointed when told by his parents that he could not take it along when they moved to California.

[4][5] Very few people other than his sister and a few close family friends knew of his early work shaping and grafting trees.

He created designs on paper first and then planted small trees in the specified patterns; pruning, grafting and bending them according to his plans.

Erlandson taught himself over a period of decades how to train the growth of trees into shapes of his own design he considered his methods trade secrets.

"[6][7] In 1945, Erlandson's daughter and his wife visited the ocean near Santa Cruz, California, where they saw people lined up to pay to see such oddities as tilted buildings at the Mystery Spot.

They returned home and mentioned offhandedly to Axel that if his trees were on a well-traveled tourist route, they might draw people who would pay to see them.

[16] Mark Primack, a young architect, began documenting the trees and their story and received an art grant to draw and record them as they were.

[7] Preserved dead trees from Erlandson's collection reside today in the Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz, California.

Erlandson's "Telephone Booth Tree" is on permanent display at the Baltimore, Maryland American Visionary Art Museum.